Portrait of Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe, undated. NAZANINE ZAGARY-RATKLIFF / AP
Iranian-British Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained since 2016 in Iran where she was convicted of sedition, which she has always denied, is returning to the United Kingdom, a British MP said Wednesday. Nazanin is now in the air, leaving six years of hell in Iran. Twitter Tulip Siddiq, Labor MP for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency (North London), where Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe lives.
In Tehran, the official Iranian media confirmed that the Iranian-British man had been “surrendered” to the British government. The latter also announced on Wednesday the release of the second detainee. Anoushe Ashuri, a retired Iranian-British engineer, was arrested in August 2017 while visiting his mother and sentenced to ten years in prison for spying for Israel. “I can confirm that Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe and Anoushe Ashuri will be returning to the UK today” and “they will be reunited with their families later today,” the post read. Twitter head of diplomacy Liz Truss.
“They are facing hardships that no family should know about and this is a moment of great relief,” she added in a statement, applauding “the result of tenacious and creative British diplomacy.”
Paid debt
Their release came when London announced that it had settled an old debt of nearly £400m (€476m) with Tehran without establishing a link between the two cases. Iran confirms receipt of payment on the debt.
This debt “has been settled in full compliance with British and international sanctions (…) and these funds will be reserved exclusively for the purchase of humanitarian goods,” Liz Truss assured. In the morning, the British Foreign Secretary said BBC that he made it his priority to “ensure that we repay our legitimate debt to the Iranian authorities”.
On several occasions, Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe and father of their young daughter Gabriella, has stated that his wife was “hostage” to the sinister political game involved in this debt that the United Kingdom has taken on at gunpoint. contract. He also went on two hunger strikes to warn of the fate of his comrade. The last one lasted twenty-one days, in the fall of 2021.
Accused of conspiracy
On Tuesday, 43-year-old Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe collected her passport, raising hopes of an early release. The project manager of the Foundation, the charity arm of the news agency of the same name, was arrested in 2016 in Tehran while visiting her family. She was accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran, which she categorically denies, and sentenced to five years in prison.
After serving her sentence at the end of April 2021, she was again sentenced to one year in prison for her participation in a rally outside the Iranian embassy in London in 2009. She lost her appeal in October 2021, leaving her family fearful of her imminent return to prison, from which she was allowed to leave with an electronic bracelet in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dozens of Westerners detained
As the Islamic Republic of Iran detains more than a dozen Western passport holders, Liz Truss announced that London will continue to work on the departure from Iran of Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American, also of British citizenship, sentenced to ten years in prison for “colluding with America” and released on parole.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed that a group of British negotiators are working in Tehran to secure the release of several dual nationals.
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