The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has gone public with a desperate plea for Boris Johnson to meet him and honour his
promise to free his wife.
Richard Ratcliffe made the appeal in a private letter to the PM more than two weeks ago. He received no reply.
He told the Mirror that daughter Gabriella, five, “cries for her mummy” and wrote to Johnson: “We look to you for our Christmas miracle”.
But the PM has blanked all pleas for contact since entering No 10, despite promising as Foreign Secretary to “leave no stone unturned” to free the British mum jailed by Iran as a “spy”.
Now Richard feels he has no choice but to go public with his most searing appeal yet.
His letter also reveals disturbing details about bungling Johnson’s earlier involvement in the case.
They include a reminder about an extraordinary meeting in which Richard was made to apologise for TV comments Johnson felt harmed
his reputation.
And Richard reveals that at their last meeting two years ago, Johnson even tried to hush him up, urging him to “wait quietly” as his campaign was “damaging to Nazanin”.
Richard said: “That was outrageous. It was proper victim-blaming stuff.”
The charity worker was held in April 2016 while visiting her parents in Tehran with little Gabriella.
Johnson was forced to apologise for wrongly stating she had been arrested during a trip to train journalists.
The words have been repeatedly used against her and Richard believes they “cemented” her imprisonment.
He said: “Enough is enough. How can this be allowed to happen without the PM explaining what he is doing about it? If you take responsibility for the country you have to take responsibility for obvious mistakes.
“If he is not taking responsibility here then heaven help us elsewhere.”
In his letter he reveals his wife is now so desperate she has spoken of taking an overdose. He adds: “Does
she have to attempt something extreme before your promise is kept?”
Reminding the PM of the 2017 meeting that followed his gaffe, Richard says: “In private, you sympathised, though no apology came.
“In fact, during one meeting you went through the transcript of one TV show, Loose Women, line by line, quoting my comments whose
consequences you felt allowed you to be unfairly criticised. I apologised.”
Richard told me: “He was pulling me up, saying it was inaccurate and unfair. In retrospect, it feels tit-for-tat.”
Nevertheless, Johnson claimed he was committed to freeing Nazanin.
Journalists were told a historic unpaid arms debt Britain owed Iran was linked to her captivity and the Foreign Secretary flew to Tehran.
But the debt wasn’t paid and in the letter Richard tells the PM Iran was angered by false promises it would be, creating devastating consequences for Nazanin and other Brits there.
He writes: “There are people in prison now who would not be there if you had not made such promises and failed to keep them.”
He tells Johnson: “She says how she no longer wants to live through what they are doing to her.”
And he says Gabriella, who last month returned home to start school, is struggling.
"After visiting her mother’s prison she is scared of CCTV cameras when she sees them on public transport and is “only able to sleep with someone holding her hand”.
Richard added: “She cuddles a teddy her mother gave her and cries she misses Mummy.”
A Tory spokesman said: “We continue to raise cases at the most senior level and urge Iran to let them be reunited.”
