Zaghari-Ratcliffe Wants To Know Why Deal To Free Her Collapsed
Husband of British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is detained in Iran, demands transparency from the UK authorities about a deal to bring her home.
Husband of British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is detained in Iran, demands transparency from the UK authorities about a deal to bring her home.
According to a Guardian report on Sunday, Richard Ratcliffe said his wife is “very, very angry” after learning about the collapse of a deal. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in Iran in April 2016 and spent five years in prison. She is now out of prison but not allowed to leave the country.
He husband says she fears she is a “bargaining chip” in ongoing nuclear talks and is filled with “anger at her life being stolen” and the government’s “lack of urgency” in securing her release.
MPs were told the UK had signed an agreement to secure her release in the summer, but that the deal had fallen through. The UK government has not revealed why the agreement fell apart, but there are fears it is linked to nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Britain is understood to have agreed to repay a £400 million debt it owes Iran relating to an abortive deal to export British armaments in the 1970s.
“I could have been home last year. Why am I still here? They have ruined my life, day by day, for six years. Where is [Johnson’s] urgency? I just want to come home,” the husband quoted her as saying.
Rights groups accuse Iran of holding dual-nationals as bargaining chips for money or influence in negotiations with the West, something Tehran denies.
