Prison protest
Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe, the British mother jailed in Iran (pictured with her daughter Gabriella), begins a hunger strike today in protest at the decision to deny her medical care. She is to strike for an initial period of three days.
Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe has been in prison in Iran since April 2016, accused of trying to overthrow the regime – a preposterous charge to be levelled against the young British mother who was on holiday visiting relatives.
She holds dual nationality, which has made it more difficult for the UK government to exercise leverage against Tehran, for whom her continued incarceration has become almost a matter of national honour in the face of global condemnation. Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe and her family have had hopes of her release raised on several occasions only to see them cruelly dashed.
Today, she is due to begin a hunger strike, after being denied medical care in prison. It is appalling that she continues to endure this ongoing indignity and danger. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has on several occasions criticised the UK’S response, and even though her case has been raised many times at a political level, her long-anticipated release has failed to materialise.
The time has come for a different approach. Mr Ratcliffe and others campaigning for her release want the Government to afford her diplomatic protection. Such a move would escalate this matter into a formal legal dispute between the UK and Iran under international law.
The Foreign Office has previously resisted this proposal and said they were looking to explore other avenues. But since these have patently failed to lead anywhere, what is preventing them from taking this approach now? It opens up many more options than are currently available by treating the case as an internal matter for Iran.
Considering this affair has not been well handled by the Foreign Office from the outset, the least that can be done is to raise the stakes by giving Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe diplomatic protection before an injustice becomes a tragedy.