NAZANIN IS FREED
... BUT SHE COULD BE JAILED AGAIN AT NEW HEARING
NAZANIN ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE is free of her ankle tag at last after her house arrest ended – but is facing another court appearance next week over an unknown new charge.
The 42-year-old has completed a five-year sentence in Iran, much of it served behind bars, over spying charges that she denies.
But the British-Iranian’s husband Richard Ratcliffe, who is looking after their daughter Gabriella, six, back in the UK, said: ‘It’s a mixed day for us.’
He said Nazanin was ‘genuinely happy’ to be free of her electronic bracelet but added: ‘I’m a bit more guarded. She’s having a nice afternoon, has turned her phone off and is not thinking about the rest of it. But she remains in harm’s way, even if today she is determined not to feel it.
‘It feels to me they’ve made one blockage just as they have removed another. We very clearly remain in the middle of this government game of chess.’
North Londoner Mr Ratcliffe said he was grateful after foreign secretary Dominic Raab called for his wife’s swift return to the UK.
Mr Raab said: ‘We welcome the removal of the tag but Iran continues to put Nazanin and her family through a cruel and an intolerable ordeal.
‘We have relayed to Iranian authorities in the strongest terms that her continued confinement is unacceptable.’
Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi said Nazanin was a ‘political pawn’. And Amnesty International’s Kate Allen said: ‘She was convicted after a deeply unfair trial and this spurious new charge and possible trial is clearly designed to delay her release and exert yet more pressure. The government must not take this lying down.’
Charity worker Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran airport while taking Gabriella to see her parents in April 2016. Her MP Tulip Siddiq says the case is linked to a £400million debt owed to Iran since 1979.
Last year, foreign office minister James Cleverly denied any link to the money – paid by the former shah for tanks that were never delivered after he was deposed. But he added: ‘We recognise the debt is due. We are working to resolve this.’