MP pledges to lobby for Iran prisoner release
AN MP has promised to do “everything she can” to free a Chelsea resident stuck in Iran.
Morad Tahbaz, 66, remains trapped and his family left heartbroken after they expected him to be freed alongside Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori this week.
Morad’s family have spoken out about their agony at him being used as a tool in Iran’s negotiations with the UK.
His sister Taraneh Tahbaz told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “He continues to be used as a pawn on a chessboard and it’s very distressing.
“We’re agonised and we’re absolutely distraught and we don’t know what the next moves are. He’s not well – he’s a cancer patient, he’s had Covid twice, he’s lost more than 40 kilos.”
The British-US national remains confined to a hotel, according to the Foreign Office. He also has Iranian citizenship.
Morad’s MP Felicity Buchan confirmed she will do everything in her power to ensure he will be freed.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, she said: “I will be working very hard, alongside the [Foreign Office] to lobby for Morad’s full release from Iran. Morad’s case is slightly more complicated as he is a triple national with US nationality as well as British and Iranian. I will be doing everything I can to help secure his release.”
Appearing alongside Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe at a news conference on Monday, Mr Tahbaz’s daughter, Roxanne, said the family thought he would be released with other dual nationals.
Mr Tahbaz, who was born in Hammersmith, is currently on hunger strike according to his daughter and Roxanne has called on the government to do “whatever they have to do” to bring her father home. She explained: “From the outset, we were always assured by the [UK government] that my father would be included in any deal that was made to release all of the hostages. So we’re truly devastated, knowing now that this was not the case.” The conservationist was accused of espionage after monitoring endangered species using cameras. In 2021, the then-foreign secretary Dominic Raab proposed a deal to Mr Tahbaz in jail where he would be left in Iran on furlough – out of jail but not free, the Guardian reports. The Iranians are understood to regard Mr Tahbaz as American
He’s not well – he’s a cancer patient, he’s had Covid twice, he’s lost more than 40 kilos. Morad’s sister Taraneh Tahbaz
and not part of a British deal. Mr Tahbaz reportedly rejected the deal.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 44, and businessman Anoosheh Ashoori, 67, arrived back in the UK in the early hours of last Thursday (March 17).
It was Ms Zaghari-Rafcliffe’s first time back in London in almost
six years, after facing allegations, which she denies, of spying. The mum-of-one was arrested in Iran in 2016.
The Foreign Office told the BBC that Mr Tahbaz had been moved to a hotel, and it continued to lobby the Iranian authorities to allow him to return home immediately.