PM plea for Nazanin release in talks with Iran president

THERESA MAY will make a personal plea for the release of a jailed charity worker in Tehran during talks with Iran’s president today.

The Prime Minister will raise “serious concerns” about the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe and urge Hassan Rouhani to free her on humanitarian grounds.

The British-iranian mother was sentenced to five years in jail after being accused of spying by Tehran’s Islamist regime, a charge she denies.

Mrs May is expected to meet Mr Rouhani for talks in New York today where she is attending the United Nations General Assembly.

A senior government official said: “The PM will express serious concern at Nazanin’s ongoing detention and call for her to be released upon humanitarian grounds.”

Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was detained at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport in April 2016. Last month she was granted a three-day release from Evin prison but her request for an extension was denied and she was forced to say goodbye to Gabriella, her four-year-old daughter, and return to jail.

Richard Ratcliffe, her husband, wrote an open letter to Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, calling the short release a “cruel game”.

Jeremy Hunt pledged to do everything possible to secure Mrs Zaghariratcliffe’s release after he became Foreign Secretary. It followed criticism of predecessor Boris Johnson’s handling of attempts to free her.

The decision by Donald Trump, the US president, to pull out of the 2015 deal that relieved sanctions on Tehran in return to an end to Iran’s military nuclear ambitions is also expected to feature heavily in discussions across the UN.

Britain and its European allies responded with dismay to Washington’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).