Dear Boris, Please bring mummy home
Girl’s plea over jailed Nazanin
THE six-year-old daughter of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has written to Boris Johnson asking him to ‘please bring mummy home for Christmas’.
Gabriella was only 22 months old when her mother was arrested while they were on holiday in Iran in 2016 and jailed for five years.
Now living in England with her father Richard Ratcliffe, Gabriella has sent the Prime Minister a handwritten card saying she hopes to cuddle her mother and take her shopping.
The Christmas message, on which she drew her reunited family with Mr Johnson, said: ‘Dear Boris Johnson, please can you bring my mummy home for Christmas? She has been good.
‘When she comes back I want to cuddle her first and then go to the toy shop with her. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Love Gabriella xxx.’ Charity worker Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a BritishIranian dual national who turns 42 on Boxing Day, was jailed over allegations she was a spy, a charge she has repeatedly denied.
She has been out of prison since March due to the coronavirus crisis and is under house arrest at her parents’ home in Tehran. She is nearing the end of her sentence but has been warned she faces fresh charges and could be sent back to jail. A new trial date has not yet been set.
Gabriella was cared for by her grandparents in Iran before returning to Britain last year to be with her father in West
Hampstead, north west London. Amnesty International has produced a ten-minute film in which she meets Elika Ashoori, 34, the daughter of retired engineer Anoosheh Ashoori, who is also being held in Iran accused of spying.
Gabriella, who is shown making her card for the Prime Minister while Miss Ashoori bakes cakes, confesses she misses her mother most at night, as this is when she ‘cries about it’.
Mr Ratcliffe, who has been campaigning for his wife’s release, said of their fifth Christmas apart: ‘Christmas is quite a family landmark – there’s all these family expectations and family films and lots of talking in school.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given diplomatic protection by the Government, which argues she is innocent and that her treatment fails to meet Iran’s obligations under international law.
‘I want to cuddle her and go to the toy shop’