Iran Sentences British Council Employee for Alleged Espionage
The woman, an Iranian citizen, was found guilty of cooperating with British spy agencies while working for the British Council - charges she "quickly and clearly" confessed to, Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a press conference.
Esmaili did not identify the woman, but a London-based British Council employee, Aras Amiri, was arrested last year in Iran during a trip to visit relatives. It was not immediately clear if she was the individual sentenced Monday.
The British Council, a cultural and educational organization with branches around the world, does not have an office in Iran.
"We are a non-political organization committed to people-to-people engagement, and our staff are not connected to any espionage agency," the organization said in a statement.
The charges come amid tensions between Iran and Britain over efforts to free another women - British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested in 2016 as she was leaving Tehran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year term for allegedly trying to topple the Iranian government - charges she denied.