FAMILY’S HEARTBREAK AS MUM RETURNS TO IRAN JAIL:
THE family of imprisoned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe have spoken about the heart-wrenching moment she was returned to prison after her period of leave was not extended.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 39, has been serving a five-year jail sentence at the notorious Evin Prison in Iran since April 2016 after she was accused by the Iranian government of recruiting for the banned BBC Persian service and opposition cyber teams.
She was visiting her parents in the country with her daughter Gabriella at the time of her arrest and her daughter has had to remain in Iran. Nazanin’s husband Richard Ratcliffe has not seen either of them since then.
After serving more than two years of her sentence, Nazanin was granted furlough from prison for the first time and was able to visit her daughter at her parents’ homes, with the heartwarming moments of reconciliation between mother and daughter caught on camera.
But Nazanin’s relief from the horror of prison was short-lived as she has now been returned to Evin to serve the remainder of her sentence, despite indications that her period of furlough would be extended.
Nazanin’s sister-in-law Rebecca Jones, who lives in Cardiff, said the family was pleased to see how well she looked but have now been left in limbo about whether she will be released in the near future.
Ms Jones said: “Seeing Nazanin with Gabriella was so heartwarming and you could see pure joy on both of their faces.
“We haven’t seen Nazanin for nearly two-and-a-half years, so it was lovely to see how surprisingly well she was looking and to see her with her daughter, who she still has such a strong bond with.
“But it’s bittersweet because she has been forced back into prison and it must bring back memories to Nazanin of the time when she was initially imprisoned. There’s also uncertainty about where we stand.
“We’re all a little bit stunned, to be honest, because we expected furlough to be extended. It’s quite normal that prisoners who are released on short furlough to have their time extended and Nazanin has behaved exemplarily, so we can’t believe she didn’t have it extended.”
Ms Jones, who works as a GP in Cwmbran, said the family and Foreign Office had been given conflicting accounts by Iranian officials on why Nazanin’s furlough was not extended, but now the family will keep fighting for her full release at the earliest opportunity.
Speaking of Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s handling of the case, Ms Jones added: “He had a bit of a head start because he knew about the case before he was Foreign Secretary, and my brother and my mother have been impressed by his empathy and it feels like he’s taking it very seriously and trying to get Nazanin home as a priority.
“This is the first time we have had movement when it comes to furlough, but it’s difficult to know where credit lies or whether it was on the cards anyway.”