An Iranian lady accused of “spying” for the United Kingdom has been sentenced to 10 years in jail in Iran, a spokesperson for u . S. A .’s judiciary has stated.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told newshounds at a press convention on Monday that the female was “in the rate of the Iran table” of the British Council, a cultural organization, and confessed to “cooperating” with UK intelligence officers.

He did now not pick out the suspect, however, he said she had been sentenced recently after she “made a honest confession.”

Esmaili delivered that the suspect, whom he alleged had been tasked with drawing up and coping with cultural “infiltration” tasks, were arrested by Iranian intelligence and safety agencies “extra than a year ago.”

Iran jails British Council employee for a decade for 'spying' 1

A London-based British Council worker, Aras Amiri, turned into arrested in Iran in 2018.

A pal of the sentenced female recognized her as Aras Amiri to the Reuters information company. At the same time, British newspaper The Telegraph reported that one among Amiri’s circle of relatives individuals confirmed she changed into the character sentenced.

Monday’s assertion brought on an immediate response from London, with the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) saying it changed into “very worried” via the Iranian pass.

“We have no longer been capable of verifying any further info at this degree and are urgently looking for further records,” an FCO spokesperson instructed Al Jazeera.

‘We do not work in Iran’
The British Council is a cultural and academic organization with branches around the arena. Funding from the UK’s overseas office makes up about 15 percentage of its standard profits.

According to the agency’s website, it isn’t always a “bodily gift” in Iran.

Ciaran Devane, the British Council’s leader government, said the enterprise had not but “been capable of verifying” whether the unnamed female noted via Esmaili became an employee.

“Our colleague who turned into detained ultimate yr isn’t always head of ‘the Iran table,’ they labored inside the UK in a junior position to support and exhibit the Iranian modern artwork scene to UK audiences,” Devane said in a declaration, without naming the colleague mentioned.

“The British Council does not have offices or representatives in Iran, and we do not do any paintings in Iran,” he added.

Iranian authorities shut down the British Council for more than a decade for what Esmaili described as “unlawful sports.”

Esmaili said that the suspect defined how she was recruited in her confession, telling investigators approximately her commands from the “English security corporation.”

The spokesman introduced that she changed into “an Iranian student who desired to stay and work in the UK,” became employed by using the British Council, and “again and again traveled to Iran underneath aliases… And made connections with creative and theatre corporations”.

Concerns over ‘infiltration.’

Arrests of Iranians accused of espionage have increased because the Islamic Republic’s excellent leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said ultimate yr there was “infiltration” via Western retailers in the country.

The UK is presently engaged in an extended-strolling attempt to lose Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a twin British-Iranian countrywide serving a 5-year sentence in the Islamic Republic for alleged espionage. Iran does not realize twin nationality.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 41-yr-vintage Thomson Reuters Foundation employee, turned into jailed in July 2016, three months after her preliminary arrest at Tehran airport as she was heading again to Britain.

She has frequently denied the sedition rate leveled against her, insisting she changed inside u . S. On a circle of relatives go to together with her daughter.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Iran has arrested at least 14 dual or overseas nationals in view that 2014, lots of whom HRW stated had been charged by using courts of “cooperating with a ‘hostile nation'” without sufficient evidence.

“This centered marketing campaign against foreign and twin nationals sends a threatening message to Iranian expatriates and foreigners inquisitive about operating in Iran, that their knowledge and knowledge are a liability if they go to us of a” HRW’s Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whiston said in September 2018.

“Iran’s safety equipment has seemingly made the despicable decision to use those individuals as bargaining chips to clear up diplomatic disputes,” she brought.