Free Nazanin
Let her come home NOW, Boris tells Iranian leader after ‘spying’ jail term ends
BORIS Johnson demanded Iran release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe immediately in a call with its president yesterday.
Raising the case directly with Hassan Rouhani, the Prime Minister said the mother-of-one must be allowed to return to her family in the UK now she has served her sentence for trumped up spying charges.
It marks a significant intervention by Mr Johnson in the case after her five-year prison sentence ended on Sunday.
Downing Street released details of a call between the pair, with Mr Johnson calling for the release of the charity worker and other detained British-Iranian dual nationals.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was freed
‘Fair trial rights violated’
from house arrest and had her ankle tag removed on Sunday after her prison sentence on false spying charges came to an end. But she is unable to return to Britain and faces new charges.
A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister said that while the removal of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe’s ankle monitor was welcome, her continued confinement remains completely unacceptable and she must be allowed to return to her family in the UK.’
She was arrested in 2016 as she visited her parents with her baby daughter and was imprisoned, before being released to her parents’ home under house arrest last year. Her family say she has been taken hostage over hundreds of millions of pounds owed by the UK for tanks ordered before the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979.
She has not had her passport returned and so cannot leave Iran. She has been summoned to appear in front of a court this Sunday under possible new charges relating to accusations of her spreading propaganda against the regime.
These charges were first mentioned in 2017 when then-foreign secretary Mr Johnson told a parliamentary committee that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists at the time of her arrest. This was cited as proof that she was engaged in ‘propaganda against the regime’. Mr Johnson later apologised and retracted the comments, but the second court case has been held over her head ever since.
Her husband Richard and their six-year-old daughter Gabriella attended a vigil outside the Iranian embassy in Knightsbridge, central London, on Monday. Asked about the call, Mr Ratcliffe said: ‘It’s a good sign that they’re speaking... but I can’t tell how close they are to an understanding.’
Kate Allen of Amnesty International UK, said: ‘Nazanin has already been convicted once after a deeply unfair trial, so of course we’re extremely concerned about this hearing.’
She said the Iranian authorities ‘systematically violate fair trial rights’ and it was of the ‘utmost importance’ that UK officials attend court hearings.
Downing Street says officials have been denied access to legal proceedings because Iran does not recognise dual nationality.
An Iranian statement on the call did not mention Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe but said the debt issue was raised. ‘Undoubtedly, accelerating repayment of Iran’s claims is also effective in solving other problems,’ it added.