LET HER GO
Boris Johnson urges Iran to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘permanently’ as British aid worker beams after jail release
BORIS Johnson has urged Iran to "permanently" release aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe so she can return to the UK to be reunited with her family.
The 42-year-old British-Iranian philanthropist smiled from cheek-to-cheek after she was released from her five-year-prison sentence today and her electronic ankle tag was removed.
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But her dedicated husband, Richard Ratcliffe, announced a new court case is set against the mother-of-one that has been scheduled for next Sunday.
The Prime Minister said he was "pleased" with removal of her tag but he condemned the continuation of criminal proceedings against her.
: "Pleased to see the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag, but her continued confinement remains totally unacceptable.
"She must be released permanently so she can return to her family in the UK, and we continue to do all we can to achieve this."
Nazanin was jailed in Iran for plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment in 2016, after she had travelled to the country with her young daughter to visit her parents.
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Mr Johnson previously intervened in Nazanin's case when he visited Tehran in 2017, after he seriously slipped up during his stint as British Foreign Secretary.
When denouncing her conviction, the PM said Nazanin was "simply teaching people journalism" - conflicting her defence that she was visiting Iran on holiday.
The comments were used as evidence in court that she was involved in "propaganda against the regime" before Johnson backtracked and admitted he "should have been clearer".
The aid worker gleamed in a photo just hours after learning that she is no longer subject to house arrest in Tehran.
Nazanin's lawyer Hojjat Kermani said today: "She was pardoned by Iran's Supreme Leader last year, but spent the last year of her term under house arrest with electronic shackles tied to her feet.
"Now they're cast off."
The lawyer told Iranian website Emtedad: "She has been freed."
However, despite having her ankle tag removed, she has been summoned to court next week in Iran, her constituency MP Tulip Siddiq said.
The MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, where her family live in London, said today: "I have been in touch with Nazanin's family.
";Some news: 1) Thankfully her ankle tag has been removed. Her first trip will be to see her grandmother.
";2) Less positive - she has been summoned once again to court next Sunday."
Iran's judiciary officials have yet to comment about the release.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab echoed the PM's words, saying he "welcomes" the removal of Nazanin's ankle tag, but said that she must be returned home.
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He said today: "We welcome the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ankle tag, but Iran continues to put her and her family through a cruel and intolerable ordeal.
"She must be released permanently so she can return to her family in the UK.
"We will continue to do all we can to achieve this.
"We have relayed to the Iranian authorities in the strongest possible terms that her continued confinement is unacceptable."
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said in a message on Sunday that "it's a mixed day for us" and "Nazanin is genuinely happy" to be free of her electronic bracelet.
He said: "I'm a bit more guarded. It feels to me like they have made one blockage just as they have removed another, and we very clearly remain in the middle of this government game of chess."
He added that he was "grateful" for the "strong words" of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
Mr Ratcliffe added: "She is having a nice afternoon, has turned her phone off and is not thinking about the rest of it.
"But she remains in harm's way, even if today she is determined not to feel it."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian mum, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation – the charitable arm of the news agency – and a former BBC employee.
She was arrested in Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on April 3, 2016, and accused of plotting to topple the regime.
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Nazanin was stopped from returning home to Britain after visiting family with her daughter Gabriella, now six, and thrown into prison, where she spent months in solitary confinement.
At a secret trial in 2016, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in jail for "membership of organisations working against the Iranian state."
In June 2019 Jeremy Hunt issued his latest pleas in support of Nazanin, when she went on hunger strike.
The former Foreign Secretary told the Commons: "Whatever disagreements you have with the UK, do not punish this innocent woman."
Mr Hunt said that Mr Ratcliffe, who was also on hunger strike outside the Iranian embassy, was a "very brave man" who was doing a "remarkable job".
The mum was just one of several dual nationals held in Iran on espionage charges, likely to be used as bargaining chips in future negotiations with the West.
A UN panel of experts described the practice as part of an "emerging pattern" since the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
BRIT FREED
She endured months of solitary confinement, blindfolded interrogations, hunger strikes, false promises of release, and almost five years of separation from her family.
The charity worker had been under house arrest in Tehran since being moved from jail last March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In her first letter from jail to her husband, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe wrote in despair: "Every day and every second I would submerge more and more in an ocean of doubt, fear, threat, loneliness... my wails would go unheard in that tiny, dingy, cold, grey cell."
She apologised to her daughter from jail, reports the , saying: "Forgive me for all the nights I was not by your side to hold your warm, little hand till you fall asleep.
"Forgive me for all those moments you missed the bosom of your mother, for all those teething fever nights that I was not there for you; forgive me."
Separated by thousands of miles, the family have been speaking twice a day over Skype.
Nazanin’s husband Richard Ratcliffe, an accountant who lives in North London, was not with her when she was arrested in 2016, and has been campaigning for her release ever since.
'CRUEL GAMES'
He has continuously called on the Government to do more to secure his wife’s freedom and set up a last year demanding action.
Richard blasted the latest charges by Iran, dismissing them as “games” that make the country “look foolish” and bring its legal system into disrepute.
Antonio Zappulla, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said the foundation was "delighted that her jail term was ended" today and that she had told him she was "'ecstatic' to be able to sit in a cafe and have a coffee".
"Nazanin must be given her freedom, as was promised."
Kate Allen, Director at Amnesty International UK, today said: “This is such bittersweet news.
“After all Nazanin’s been through this feels like yet another example of the calculated cruelty of the Iranian authorities.
“The Iranian authorities have an appalling record of playing cruel games - not just with Nazanin, but also with other UK nationals and numerous people held in the country on politically-motivated grounds.
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“Nazanin was convicted after a deeply unfair trial the first time around, and this spurious new charge and possible trial is clearly designed to delay her release and exert yet more pressure on Nazanin and her family.
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“This won’t be over until Nazanin has her passport and is on a flight heading home to the UK.
“The UK government musn't take this lying down. All the past talk of not leaving any stone unturned to secure Nazanin’s release must now be translated into very serious diplomatic action.”
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Ex-Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt warns Iran US strike is 'hammer blow' to getting jailed Brit Nazanin Zahari Ratcliffe home
More to follow...
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