Source: London Evening Standard
By: KIRAN RANDHAWA
A British woman jailed in Iran for trying to watch a men’s volleyball match is facing new charges that could see her spend years behind bars.
Ghoncheh Ghavami, from Shepherd’s Bush, has already been sentenced to one year in prison after attending a peaceful protest in Tehran this summer against the Iranian ban on women attending men’s sports events.
Source: London Evening Standard
By: KIRAN RANDHAWA
A British woman jailed in Iran for trying to watch a men’s volleyball match is facing new charges that could see her spend years behind bars.
Ghoncheh Ghavami, from Shepherd’s Bush, has already been sentenced to one year in prison after attending a peaceful protest in Tehran this summer against the Iranian ban on women attending men’s sports events.
But the country’s Revolutionary Guard are now accusing her of endangering the country’s national security.
Regime hardliners are calling for the 25-year-old to be charged with spying, which could see her facing a tougher sentence.
Miss Ghavami’s parents were refused a meeting with their daughter yesterday when she was transferred to a new prison.
They spoke to her by phone and were then sent away.
“It was heart-breaking to be so close and not see her. She is teaching English to the other women in her room. Even now she is more concerned with the plight of other people than herself,” her mother Soosan Moshtaghian said in a statement yesterday.
Her brother Iman added: “We are very scared. Ghoncheh has been a pawn in a wider political game from very early on.
“The Revolutionary Guard never knows how to back down. They were very unhappy when all she got was a year in jail. They’re determined to make an example of her.”
Miss Ghavami was transferred to an open women’s prison in Varamin, south of Tehran, last week.
Her brother said, the conditions in the new prison are “much worse”.
“The food is terrible, the water undrinkable. She is much weaker,” said Mr Ghavami.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We are concerned that the outcome of Ghoncheh Ghavami’s case is still unclear, and by reports that she may be facing new charges. We urge the Iranian judiciary to follow due process.”
