A French-Iranian citizen who left Iran in 2009 after facing espionage charges has been sentenced to six years in jail following her return to the country to visit her critically ill mother, reports The Guardian.
Nazak Afshar, 58, a former French embassy employee, was arrested last month on arrival at Tehran airport, the opposition website Kaleme reported on Sunday.
She was freed on bail from Evin prison after sentencing, it said. The Iranian judiciary has not commented on her case or made the charges against her public.
Afshar, who had dual citizenship, was arrested and tried in 2009 on charges of spying and acting against Iran’s national security. No verdict was issued and she was freed following the intervention of the French government, leaving the country the same year.
The potential opening up to the west after last year’s nuclear deal has alarmed Iranian hardliners, and Afshar’s arrest appears to be part of a crackdown against what some officials have portrayed as western infiltration.
Several other dual-nationality citizens or expatriates have been arrested on returning to visit Iran. A spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said on Sunday that four had recently been sentenced for their connections to foreign countries.