Iran sentences British-Iranian researcher to 9 years in jail

Iran sentenced a British-Iranian anthropologist who has studied child marri and female genital mutilation to nine years in jail and fined him over $700,000 in cash, semiofficial Tasnim news ncy reported Sunday.

report said Kameel Ahmy was sentenced by Iran's Revolutionary Court on charges of cooperation with European embassies in support of promoting homosexuality, visiting Israel as a reporter for BBC, cooperation and communication with foreign and hostile media, infiltration aimed at changing law, and sending false reports about country to U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Iran.

report said Ahmy has right to appeal within 20 days.

In October 2019, Iran ackwledged Ahmy’s arrest for suspected links to institutes affiliated with foreign intelligence services.

His wife Shafagh Rahmani and activists h anunced he was detained in August that same year . At time, New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said Ahmy previously h been target of hard-liners in Iranian media for his work “on politically sensitive topics including child marri, LGBTQ issues and female genital mutilation.”

He was released in vember 2019 on bail. Sunday's report did t say if he was still free.

Travel to Israel and homosexuality are both illegal in Iran. Offenders can face up to five years in prison for visiting Israel. Homosexuals can face death penalty if y commit sexual intercourse, although re have been reports of capital punishment for homosexuality in recent years.

Ahmy is one of several dual nationals who've been detained by Iran over past few years. Iran does t recognize dual citizenship.

Iran holds ar British-Iranian national, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe , who has alrey served most of her five-year sentence on espion charges. She was granted temporary release this spring and allowed to remain indefinitely at her parents’ Tehran home because of coronavirus pandemic.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an employee at Thomson Reuters Foundation, charitable arm of news ncy, was tried on charges of plotting to overthrow Iranian government.

ir cases come amid heightened tensions between Iran and West over its atomic program.

President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew U.S. from nuclear accord last year and imposed sanctions, crippling Iran’s ecomy. Iran recently has begun inching away from accord, warning it will take furr steps if Europe cant guarantee Tehran ability to sell its crude oil on global market.