UK's Johnson apologises for distress caused by remarks on jailed aid worker in Iran
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday apologised for causing distress with remarks about a Iranian-British aid worker jailed in Iran.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic's clerical establishment. She denies the charges.
Johnson said on Nov. 1 that she had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in April 2016, contradicting her and her employer, who said she had been on holiday visiting her family.
"My remarks on the subject before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee could and should have been clearer and I acknowledge that the words I used were open to being misinterpreted and I apologise to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family if I inadvertently caused them any further anguish," Johnson said.
"I reject any suggestion that she was there in a professional capacity," he said.
