• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, September 22, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World

UK Calls on Iran to Release British-Iranian Woman After Sentence Ends

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
03/07/21
in World
British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Photo: Free Nazanin campaign/AFP via Getty

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The UK government on Sunday called for the immediate release of a British-Iranian woman after her five-year sentence for sedition ended in Iran, as a new court summons caused further uncertainty about her fate.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been under house arrest for months, had her ankle tag removed, giving her more freedom of movement and allowing her to visit relatives in Tehran.

But the 42-year-old dual national now faces another court appearance in Iran next Sunday, dashing hopes from her family, friends and supporters of an immediate return home.

Her husband, Richard, said she was “genuinely happy” at the development but that she remained a pawn in a diplomatic dispute between London and Tehran.

“She is having a nice afternoon, has turned her phone off and is not thinking about the rest of it. I’m a bit more guarded,” he told Britain’s Press Association news agency.

“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.

“She remains in harm’s way.”

Nazanin spoke to the family on Facetime on Sunday morning. Her sister-in-law, Rebecca, said she was “quite upbeat, quite pleased” and “very relieved” to be free from electronic monitoring.

But she said it was unclear if the Iranian authorities would return her passport or whether she could be subject to further detention.

The family would not celebrate until she was on a plane home, she told Sky News television, adding: “There’s a few more sleepless nights ahead of us.”

‘Dark cloud’

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab welcomed the removal of Nazanin’s ankle tag but called her treatment in the Islamic republic “intolerable”.

“She must be allowed to return to the UK as soon as possible to be reunited with her family,” he wrote on Twitter.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained while on holiday in 2016 and convicted of plotting to overthrow the regime in Tehran — accusations she strenuously denied.

But her case, and those of other dual nationals, became the center of a diplomatic dispute during the five years she has been separated from her husband and their young daughter, Gabriella.

Antonio Zappulla, the chief executive of her employers the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said he had spoken to her as she had coffee in Tehran.

“She was really pleased, she was very happy. I haven’t heard her this way since I spoke to her when she came out of prison, and she was delighted… She’s definitely in good spirits,” he told AFP.

But he said the prospect of a second court case was a “dark cloud over her head” — six months after she was told of a new indictment.

The authorities have yet to provide details of why nor disclose documents on the charges on which she was originally sentenced.

“I’m calling for the UK government to continue to intensify negotiations with the Iranian government,” Zappulla said.

‘Propaganda against the system’

“Nazanin is really a token in a much larger game which involves the way things are going in different capitals, not just London,” he added, emphazising she had not been working in Iran when she detained.

Richard Ratcliffe told the BBC on Saturday that the case has the potential to “drag on and on” and his wife was a diplomatic hostage.

London has admitted it owes Iran up to £300 million ($390 million) over a failed arms deal dating back to the time of the shah of Iran in the 1970s.

The couple’s constituency MP in London, Tulip Siddiq, said Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s first trip without her ankle bracelet would be to see her grandmother.

It was not immediately clear if she is under any other restrictions.

In Iran, the news agency ISNA quoted Hojjat Kermani, who was described as her lawyer, as confirming his client’s ankle tag had been removed.

He also said she would face further allegations of “propaganda against the system” at a revolutionary court on March 14.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Mahsa Amini protests
Democracy at Risk

Over 90 Reporters Questioned or Arrested in Iran Since Protests: Media

by Staff Writer
August 8, 2023
Mahsa Amini protests
World

G7 Nations Denounce ‘Brutal’ Iran Protest Crackdown

by Staff Writer
November 4, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests
Opinion

Imagining a Free Iran

by Stephen J. Lyons
October 24, 2022
Iran protests
Featured

Iran Protesters Defiant Despite Crackdown

by Staff Writer
October 10, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests
Middle East

Iran Protests Flare for 10th Night as Tensions Grow With West

by Staff Writer
September 26, 2022
Iranian flag
Middle East

Iran Media Says Foreign Diplomats Arrested Including Briton

by Staff Writer
July 6, 2022
Next Post
An ambulance outside the United Nations office in Yemen's capital Sanaa, March 7, 2021.

At Least Eight Dead in Fire at Yemen Migrant Facility: IOM

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks at an event.

President of Honduras Helped Smuggle Tons of Cocaine into US: Prosecutor

Recommended

Chinese President Xi Jinping

China Announces ‘Strategic Partnership’ With Syria

September 22, 2023
Man holding up a colored LGBT flag

France Sets Up Embassy Fund to Defend LGBTQ Rights

September 19, 2023
US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis

US Authorities Seize Artworks Allegedly Stolen by Nazis

September 19, 2023
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference

Japan PM to Replace Foreign and Defense Ministers: Reports

September 12, 2023
A man walks with his belongings through the rubble in an alleyway in the earthquake-damaged old city in Marrakesh on September 9, 2023

Morocco Quake Death Toll Passes 2,000: Ministry

September 10, 2023
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

The Ominous (and Irresponsible) Chatter of a Civil War 

September 4, 2023

Opinion

Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

The Ominous (and Irresponsible) Chatter of a Civil War 

September 4, 2023
A bamboo-based design raises family homes safely above water levels to cope with raising water levels in Bangladesh.

The West Owes Climate Refugees Reparations Now

August 14, 2023
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.

Boxing Day Comes to South Florida

July 5, 2023
‘Deaths of Despair:’ Why Are US Suicides on the Rise?

An Inspired Choice to Lead the CDC

June 13, 2023
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 19, 2022.

Florida Man Channels Benito Mussolini

June 13, 2023
Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post