Husband of British mother held in Iran urges May to intervene
THE husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British mother imprisoned in Iran, has called on Theresa May to intervene after the failure of efforts by Boris Johnson two years on from her arrest.
Speaking at an event in Hampstead, north London, yesterday to mark the second anniversary of her detention by the Iranian authorities, Richard Ratcliffe said: “Nazanin is still in prison, so in simple terms, the Foreign Secretary has not done enough.
“The Prime Minister is more important, and just as we were pushing to meet the Foreign Secretary, at some point, if that is not enough, we have to push up another level and that’s the Prime Minister.”
He added that he still wanted Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson to be clear about the technicalities of what he thinks Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s rights are. “Before Christmas he vowed to leave no stone unturned, which was a political commitment, but legally, they say it is being treated as a consular case,” he said.
“Clearly this isn’t a consular case where the Government has no obligations.”
Mr Ratcliffe was joined by more than a dozen members of the local community including Labour MP Tulip Siddiq in adorning a tree with yellow ribbons, from which they tied jokes and flowers. The event was designed to lift the spirits of Nazanin’s friends and family, after what Mr Ratcliffe called a “dark two years”.
Mr Ratcliffe has not seen his wife or his daughter Gabriella, who is now three, since they were stopped at the airport in Tehran on April 3, 2016.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was subsequently jailed for five years, accused of seeking to overthrow the Iranian regime. Gabriella is being looked after by her grandparents in Tehran and has not seen her father for two years.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe denies the charges, insisting that the trip to Iran was a holiday, designed to introduce her daughter to her Iranian family.
Her employer Thompson Reuters, where she is a project manager for its charitable foundation, says she was in the country to visit relatives and not there for work.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a dual citizen of Iran and the UK, but Iran does not recognise dual citizenship, making it complicated for the British Embassy to make contact.
“The last news I heard out of Iran is that the head of the prison had approved her release and it was in the hands of the foreign ministry to talk with the British government,” said Mr Ratcliffe.