Nazanin released but may face new charges
IRAN was accused of cruelty yesterday after it finally released a British mother jailed for five years – only to order her before another court next week.
The Iranian authorities removed the ankle tag on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, after she completed her term for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government – a charges she denies.
But on Sunday she must appear before an Iranian court on propaganda charges.
The developments were announced on Twitter by her MP in Hampstead, north London, Labour’s Tulip Siddiq.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab slammed Iran’s behaviour and demanded Nazanin’s swift return to the UK, to be reunited with her husband Richard and their six-year-old daughter Gabriella.
Mr Raab said: “Iran continues to put her and her family through a cruel and an intolerable ordeal.
“She must be released permanently.” Richard said: “It’s a mixed day for us. Nazanin is genuinely happy that the ankle tag is off and she has gone to visit her grandmother and the family of one of the other British Iranians held.
Guarded
“Both things that she has not been able to do for many months. She is having a nice afternoon, has turned her phone off and is not thinking about the rest of it. “I’m a bit more guarded – it feels to me like we very clearly remain in the middle of this government game of chess. She remains in harm’s way, even if today she is determined not to feel it.” He said Gabriella has been crossing off days on a calendar until her mum returns. But he added: “She’s had a lot of experience of grown-ups promising her that Mummy’s coming home and then Mummy not coming home.” Richard and his sister Rebecca had a video call yesterday with Nazanin, who has born in Tehran. Rebecca said her sister-in-law was “lit up with joy about having the ankle tag taken off”.
“It was lovely seeing her face this morning. But there’s still this threat of the second court case hanging over her. We don’t really know how to interpret what’s going to happen. Is it they’re going to just finish off the paperwork and release her and give her her passport back, or is it that they are going to whack her with that second sentence? We don’t know and there’s a few more sleepless nights ahead.”
Nazanin, who was working for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while taking Gabriella to see her parents in April 2016.
She served most of her sentence at Tehran’s Evin prison but was put under house arrest at her parents’ home a year ago. Kate Allen, director at Amnesty International UK, said: “This won’t be over until Nazanin has her passport and is on a flight heading home to the UK.”
Iran is thought to be using Nazanin as a pawn in a £400million dispute with Britain. Tehran claims it is owed the money for tanks whose delivery was stopped in 1979. The Foreign Office says her case and the debt are unrelated.