Richard with Nazanin, who he says is being sold short by the government
Credit: Tim Stewart News
When Richard Ratcliffe asked the Foreign Office for clarification on its responsibilities to his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, he expected to be reassured.
The government has previously granted diplomatic protection to Zaghari-Ratcliffe – who has almost finished a five-year jail sentence in Iran on spying charges she denies – and this year Boris Johnson sent a Christmas card to the couple’s six-year-old daughter Gabriella, apologising for taking “so long” to get her mummy home.
When he was foreign secretary in 2017, he also promised to “leave no stone unturned” to bring Zaghari-Ratcliffe home.
The ex-Foreign Secretary said they failed to meet international law obligations
Dual British-Iranian national Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained since 2016
She denies charges by officials of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government
Ex-Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt says the UK is beginning to look weak and is being pushed around over its failure to protect Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
The British-Iranian dual national has been detained in Iran since 2016, when she was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.
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Iranian officials claim the 42-year-old charity administrator, who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, had been training people to spread propaganda against the country while running a BBC Persian online journalism course. She denies the allegations.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe when she was allowed to leave prison on furlough in Spring 2020.
- Credit: Free Nazanin
Lawyers for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe have been told by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) that the British government is not a statutory safeguarding body, nor does it have a legal duty of care to British nationals overseas .
Senior MPs, including former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, have criticised the FCDO s assertion.
Writing to Nazanin s lawyers, Sarah Broughton, the FCDO s head of consular services, said there was no legal right to protection and that all cases, including Nazanin s, were treated on a discretionary basis.