Nazanin ordered to pack a bag for prison as she faces new charge

NAZANIN ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE has been summoned to court in Iran and told to pack a bag for prison, as her family called on the British Government to urgently change its strategy in securing her release.

Richard Ratcliffe, Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe’s husband, said she had been told to face an Iranian judge in court next Monday on a new charge brought against her and that she would be returned to the country’s Evin prison.

Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, who holds dual British and Iranian nationality, was detained in Iran in 2016 while visiting her family and jailed for five years on dubious spying charges, as part of an apparent attempt by Iran to use her as a hostage in negotiations with Britain.

“Yesterday, Nazanin was suddenly told that she will be facing Judge Salavati in court on Monday November 2. She was told to pack a bag for prison and bring it with her when the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] pick her up, since that is where she will be going after court,” Mr Ratcliffe said in a statement yesterday.

She had been due to attend a trial in September to face new charges against her, but that hearing was postponed.

Mr Ratcliffe added that he recently discussed her case with Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, who is said to have reassured him that diplomatic efforts to free his wife were “ongoing”.

Mr Ratcliffe said: “I do think that if she’s not home for Christmas, there’s every chance this could run for years. So I really hope there’s something we’re not being told, as on the face of it the Government’s response seems disastrous, just extraordinary that they won’t change course.”

The court summons in Iran may be linked to an ongoing court case in the UK that will decide whether London must repay Tehran a £400 million debt dating back to the Seventies, when the Shah of Iran purchased British tanks.

After the Shah was toppled in 1979, the UK refused to deliver the tanks to the new Islamic Republic and withheld the money. Mr Raab has said that the issues ran parallel but were not linked.

It emerged this week that the hearing at the High Court in London has been postponed by six months, reportedly at the request of Tehran.

Tulip Siddiq, the Zaghari-ratcliffe family’s MP, said on Twitter: “She is being treated with contempt. Please @Borisjohnson, do something to help her – demand access to the trial and step up efforts to bring her home.”

Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, who will turn 42 on Boxing Day, has been on temporary release from prison and under house arrest since earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month a Downing Street spokesman said they had raised concerns with Iran “at the highest levels”.