• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
No Result
View All Result
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

Iranian flag
National

US Not Expecting Policy Change From Iran Under New President

by Staff Writer with AFP
July 9, 2024
Iran street
Middle East

Raisi’s Death Unlikely to Change Iran Foreign Policy: Analysts

by Staff Writer with AFP
May 21, 2024
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
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

Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
An Iranian walking in front of a wall painting of the Iranian flag in Tehran

How Much Damage Has Israel Inflicted on Iran’s Nuclear Program?

June 16, 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on November 19, 2017

Israel MPs to Vote on Opposition Bid to Dissolve Parliament

June 11, 2025
Two protesters wave Mexican flags while standing on a vandalized Waymo vehicle during a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025, following a series of aggressive federal immigration operations in the city.

Unrest in Los Angeles Over Immigration Raids as Troops Sent by Trump Fan Out

June 9, 2025
US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on August 4, 2020. Photo: Drew Angerer/AFP.

US Steel, Aluminum Tariff Hikes to Take Effect Wednesday: W. House

June 4, 2025
textile workers in Kenya

Workers’ Rights in ‘Free Fall’ Globally: Report

June 2, 2025

Opinion

Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Putin talks to Trump in Hamburg

From Roosevelt to Trump: The Complicated Legacy of Personal Diplomacy

November 15, 2024
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