A VIGIL will be held in Newport city centre on Sunday, December 3 for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman currently imprisoned in Iran on spying charges.

The event has been organised by Elin Maher and friends of the #FreeNazanin campaign and will also include a carol service next to the Chartist statue on Commercial Street and outside the Westgate hotel.

In addition to the carols, messages of support and hope will be written for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her husband Richard and their daughter Gabriella, who is now three.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her daughter were apprehended in April 2016 after visiting family in Iran to celebrate Nowruz – the Iranian new year.

Earlier this year, the charity worker for Reuters Thompson, the charitable arm of the news agency, had her appeal to a five year sentence rejected by the Iranian Revolutionary Court.

And more recently, Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, apologised publicly for suggesting to the Foreign Affairs Committee that the mother-of-one had been training journalists, something which the family fear has been used against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe by the Iranian judiciary.

Mr Ratcliffe, whose sister Rebecca works as a GP in Cwmbran and lives in Marshfield, has also raised concerns about his wife receiving a fair trial, based on reporting of the situation in the Iranian media.

“I think it is spectacularly unlikely she will have a fair trial," he said.

“Everything about my experience to date with the Iranian court system has been that it has had little regard for due process, it has been illegal at every stage.

“It is illegal to be prejudicing a trial in Iran this way, but they are still doing it.”

The vigil will start at 5pm and is expected to last for approximately an hour.