Boris: I’ll do my utmost to free jailed British mother
BORIS Johnson has promised to leave no stone unturned in efforts to release the British mother Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe from an Iranian jail.
The Foreign Secretary made the pledge at a face-to-face meeting with Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard yesterday, which was described as “positive and constructive”.
Mr Johnson is planning a trip to Iran to take up the case with his counterparts and he told Mr Ratcliffe that he is keen to take him with him.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been imprisoned for 19 months after being arrested when she tried to return from a holiday visiting family in Iran.
Yesterday’s meeting took place after Mr Johnson apologised for a misunderstanding over remarks he made to the foreign affairs select committee which suggested Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists.
As a result of his comments the Iranian supreme court suggested it could increase her prison sentence by five years,
After meeting the Foreign Secretary, Mr Ratcliffe, who was accompanied by the family’s Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, said he had pressed Mr Johnson to give diplomatic protection to his wife.
During the hour-long session he also urged Mr Johnson to escalate the Government’s support for her as the “softlysoftly” approach was not working.
He said his wife was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and her mental state had suffered since a gaffe by Mr Johnson about her activities in Iran led to the threat of further charges.
Mr Ratcliffe said the situation was “deeply upsetting for her”.
He added: “That’s the one point she wanted to make to the Foreign Secretary – what it’s like to watch yourself being called a spy on television every night which has happened only in the last two weeks and just wanting him to do what he can to bring her home.”
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was being used as a “bargaining chip” in a wider diplomatic dispute, he added. Mr Ratcliffe has said her detention is being used by Tehran to get Britain to pay for a £400million arms deal with Iran struck in the 1970s.
He said: “It is important that the UK honours its obligations so that Iran can honour its legal obligations. They are separate things but it is good for the atmosphere if they are all solved.”