Your gaffe cast shadow over my life, says Nazanin
Iran hostage condemns PM’s claims
NAZANIN Zaghari-Ratcliffe told Boris Johnson yesterday how she had lived under the ‘shadow of his words’ during her six-year detention in Iran.
At their first meeting since her release, the British-Iranian dual national described the ‘massive impact’ a false claim by the Prime Minister had on her.
But Mr Johnson failed to apologise during the Downing Street meeting, which Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard, daughter Gabriella and MP Tulip Siddiq also attended.
The charity worker, 44, was freed in March along with fellow detainee Anoosheh Ashoori after the UK agreed to settle a historic £400million debt.
Mr Johnson had been accused of lengthening Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ordeal when, as foreign secretary in 2017, he wrongly claimed she had been training journalists at the time of her arrest in 2016.
Mr Ratcliffe said yesterday his wife challenged the Prime Minister on why it took so long to secure her release.
She also told him the ‘massive impact’ his comments had on her, even saying the Iranian authorities brought Mr Johnson’s words up during an interrogation shortly before her release.
Asked if the PM apologised, Mr Ratcliffe said: ‘Not specifically.’ He said it was not an ‘abrasive meeting’, but it was ‘undeniable’ that Mr Johnson was sorry for the impact of his mistake.
Miss Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, said Mr Johnson ‘looked quite shocked’ when her constituent challenged him. ‘I was really proud of Nazanin. She was sitting next to the Prime Minister, and she told him very clearly and categorically that his words had had a big impact on her and that she had lived in the shadow of his words for the best part of four and a-half years.
‘The Prime Minister looked quite shocked, I think, when she said that, but I was really proud she did say that because she wanted to make it clear to him that she’s happy now, she’s grateful, she appreciates the fact that she is home now, but there was a time when the words had a big impact.’
‘He looked quite shocked’