PM to meet husband of British mother jailed in Iran

BORIS JOHNSON is to meet the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe, the British-iranian, for the first time as part of a discussion about renewing efforts to free her and other British citizens jailed by Iran.

Richard Ratcliffe will have a face-toface meeting with Mr Johnson in Downing Street tomorrow as he seeks to increase international diplomatic pressure on Tehran to free his wife, who has been detained on controversial spying charges since 2016.

Mr Johnson was criticised for his handling of the case when foreign secretary, but Mr Ratcliffe has said he wants the Prime Minister to show that he is “personally taking interest” and signal that his wife’s case “is a priority”.

Downing Street announced the meeting after Mr Ratcliffe and families of other jailed dual nationals met yesterday with the UK’S ambassador to Iran, Rob Macaire, who was also recently detained in Tehran amid heightened tensions following the killing of a top Iranian general.

Ms Zaghari-ratcliffe, 40, from London, is serving a five-year sentence after being arrested during a holiday with her daughter and accused of spying. She is among five British or dual nationals known to have been jailed in Iran on similar charges, which they all deny.

Mr Ratcliffe previously accused Mr Johnson, when he was foreign secretary, of increasing her sentence by claiming that she was training journalists in Iran at the time of her arrest.

Other dual nationals in Iran’s notorious Evin prison include Kylie Mooregilbert, a British-australian academic.

Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, yesterday accused Tehran of a “vile practice of hostage diplomacy”.

Families of those behind bars welcomed Mr Ratcliffe’s meeting with Mr Johnson, which comes after fears that renewed hostility between Iran and the West after the killing of Qassem Soleimani might jeopardise their loved ones’ chances of being released.