Husband of Iran prisoner calls on May to intervene

THE husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British mother imprisoned in Iran, has called on Theresa May to intervene after the failure of efforts by Boris Johnson two years on from her arrest.

Speaking at an event in Hampstead to mark the second anniversary of her detention, Richard Ratcliffe said: “Nazanin is still in prison, so in simple terms, the Foreign Secretary has not done enough.

“The Prime Minister is more important and just as we were pushing to meet the Foreign Secretary, at some point, if that is not enough, we have to push up another level and that’s the Prime Minister.”

Mr Ratcliffe was joined by over a dozen members of the local community, including MP Tulip Siddiq, in adorning a tree with yellow ribbons, from which they tied jokes and flowers.

The event was designed to lift the spirits of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s friends and family after what Mr Ratcliffe called a “dark two years”.

Mr Ratcliffe has not seen his wife or his daughter Gabriella, who is now three, since they were stopped at the airport in Tehran on April 3, 2016.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was subsequently jailed for five years, accused of seeking to overthrow the Iranian regime.

Gabriella is being looked after by her grandparents in Tehran and has not seen her father for two years.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe denies the charges, insisting that the trip to Iran was a holiday designed to introduce her daughter to her Iranian family.