Freedom bid for Nazanin in seven weeks
BRITAIN is “pressing hard” for the immediate release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from detention in Iran, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said yesterday.
He insisted he was leaving “no stone unturned” to bring the British-Iranian dual national back to the UK as soon as possible.
Her family are praying she will be free in seven weeks with her detention reportedly set to end on March 7.
Mr Raab told Sky News: “I think that’s based on the existing sentence.
“But, of course, we are dealing with a regime that have got her and other dual nationals in arbitrary detention.”
He was “pushing as hard as we can to get the immediate release, not in seven weeks, but as soon as possible, on Nazanin and all of our other dual nationals.”
Nazanin, 42, was arrested at Tehran airport in 2016 as she was about to fly home to husband Richard and daughter Gabriella, now six.
She was detained on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, allegations she has denied.
Since being let out of Tehran’s Evin prison last year due to the pandemic, Nazanin has been living under house arrest at her parents’ home in the capital. She is said to have started a seven-week countdown to freedom calendar.
Nazanin’s detention has been repeatedly linked to a £400million arms deal dating back to the time of the Shah of Iran in the 1970s.
Appearing on Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Mr Raab said he had been speaking “particularly intensely” with the Iranian foreign minister since the summer.
With the change in administration in the US there may be “additional possibilities.” However, the possibility of a fresh trial on charges of spreading propaganda is still hanging over her with proceedings adjourned.