DUBAI: An Iranian Revolutionary Court has sentenced two dual nationals, German-Iranian Nahid Taghavi and British-Iranian Mehran Raouf, to more than 10 years in prison, each on national security charges, their lawyer said on Wednesday.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.

They have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to win concessions from other countries through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up. Tehran, which does not recognise dual nationality, say such arrests are based on its criminal code and denies holding people for political reasons.

In a Twitter post, the two defendants’ lawyer Mostafa Nili said: “Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Nahid Taghavi and Mehran Raouf to 10 years in prison for participating in the management of an illegal group and to eight months in prison for propaganda activities against the regime.”

The Islamic Republic’s judiciary has yet to report the sentences. But Taghavi’s daughter Mariam Claren tweeted a confirmation of her sentence.