The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Diplomatic status could help Nazanin secure Iran release
Meeting: Johnson looks into case
Boris Johnson is to meet the husband of jailed British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe tomorrow to discuss the possibility of her being offered “diplomatic protection” as part of government efforts to secure her return from Iran.
Downing Street confirmed that the Foreign Office is looking into the possible use of the status after Richard Ratcliffe spoke with the foreign secretary by phone at the weekend.
It is thought that legal advice will have to be taken before determining whether the status – which would raise Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe’s plight from a consular case to a formal dispute between the two countries – is the best method for speeding her release.
Mr Johnson returned from Brussels to answer an urgent question on the case in the House of Commons, amid continuing concern that his suggestion to a parliamentary committee that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was training journalists in Iran has exposed her to the threat of the doubling of her five-year jail sentence.
He came under fire in the Commons for suggesting his comments may have been “misinterpreted”, with his Labour shadow Emily Thornberry saying: “If it is a matter of pride that the foreign secretary is refusing to admit simply that he has made a mistake, I feel bound to say to him that
“I apologise for the distress and suffering that has been caused”
his pride matters not one ounce compared to Nazanin’s freedom.”
In response, the foreign secretary made his fullest apology yet, telling MPs: “Of course I apologise for the distress and suffering that has been caused by the impression that I gave that the government believe, and I believe, that she was there in a professional capacity. She was there on holiday. I do apologise, and of course I retract any suggestion that she was there in a professional capacity.”
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested last year on a visit to her parents in Iran, and was handed a five-year sentence on spying allegations. Her husband has appealed to be allowed to join Mr Johnson on a trip to Iran planned by the end of the year.
Mr Ratcliffe declined to join calls for Mr Johnson to resign over his gaffe, which was seized on by Iranian judicial authorities as an admission of Mrs ZaghariRatcliffe’s guilt.
But he urged the Foreign Office to ensure that all ministers know that the government position is that his wife was on holiday at the time of her arrest, after Environment Secretary Michael Gove said in a TV interview that he did not know what she was doing in Iran.
Mr Ratcliffe said: “It’s very important that the Iranians can see that this is just a family who are battling to bring Nazanin home, and not get the sort of sense that we are some sort of great Machiavellian power. We are not.”
Mr Ratcliffe described diplomatic protection as the “crucial next step” in the campaign for his wife’s release.