Woman jailed in Iran on suspicion of espionage returns to UK: All you need to know about Aras Amiri

The London-based Iranian woman, who worked as an artistic affairs officer with the British Council, was acquitted of espionage charges by Iran’s Supreme Court and has now returned to the UK after spending more than three years in Elvin prison A London-based Iranian woman, who worked as an artistic affairs officer with the British Council, was acquitted of espionage charges by Iran’s Supreme Court on Wednesday and has now returned to the United Kingdom after spending more than three years in Elvin prison. Here’s all you need to know about Aras Amiri and why she was facing espionage charges in her home country: Who is Aras Amiri and why was she arrested The 34-year-old Iranian citizen was employed for five years by the British Council “to help greater appreciation of Iranian culture in the UK, for example, supporting translations of Iranian books into English”. The Iranian authorities in the past have targeted people with dual citizenship or citizens with western connections In 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian citizen and project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years in prison for “trying to topple the Iranian government”, according to BBC. According to The New York Times, several other foreign and dual nationals are held in Iranian prisons, including German-Iranian architect Nahid Taghavi, Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, a former official with UNICEF; Swedish-Iranian physician Dr Ahmad Reza Jalali, and Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz.