Daddy is in London... mummy’s in prison
Four-year-old’s anguish over mum held in Iran for ‘spying’
THE four-year-old daughter of jailed Briton Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe has heartbreakingly told how her ‘daddy is in London’ and her ‘mummy is in jail’.
Gabriella also sent an emotional message to her father, who she has not seen for nearly three years, telling him she loved him and hoped he loved her too.
The little girl has lived with her maternal grandparents in Iran since her mother’s arrest at Tehran airport in 2016 on accusations of spying.
She visits her mother twice a week in prison and speaks to her father Richard Ratcliffe over video link every day, but has lost her English skills and has to use an interpreter.
Gabriella is said to shout ‘Goodbye mummy, I love you’ whenever she leaves from one of her visits.
Gabriella has no memory of being with both her parents as she was not yet two when they were last together in London, and Mr Ratcliffe has been denied a visa to visit Iran.
In an interview with The Times, she spoke of her wish for her mother to be freed.
Gabriella, who now attends nursery, tells her classmates: ‘My daddy is in London, my mummy is in prison.’ She has picked up on discussions of her mother’s situation, which is said to be linked to a £300million debt Iran claims Britain owes over a cancelled arms deal in the 1970s.
Talking about things no fouryearold should have to, she said: ‘I want to fly to London and get the money and bring it back so mummy can be free.’
Mr Ratcliffe, who would like his daughter to go to school in London but fears separating her from her mother, said he had spoken to his wife yesterday and is concerned over her physical and mental health. Charity worker Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, went on hunger strike last month in an attempt to get the medical treatment she has been denied since discovering lumps in her breast.
She ended after promises from the authorities that she would get help, but has still not received any treatment.
Tests which were ordered were blocked by the authorities, Mr Ratcliffe claimed.
He said: ‘It feels like they’re playing games with her health and not providing her with the healthcare. It’s not a good sign that it’s about to be solved. I think the mental health aspect is always the hardest part.’ Mr Ratcliffe said the family had been hopeful his wife would be on a clemency list to celebrate the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution last month.
He added there remains a glimmer of hope she will be part of an Iranian new year mercy list next month.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation charity, was arrested by members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport in April 2016 as she and her daughter were about to board a flight back to London.
She was sentenced to five years in jail for plotting to topple the Iranian government, allegations which she denies.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt visited Tehran in November to appeal for Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe’s release – and met Gabriella while he was there.
The United Nations has also called several times for her release, saying Iran had violated international law.