Iran's use of western prisoners as “collateral” in diplomatic disputes is “completely outrageous”, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said today.
Richard Ratcliffe spoke out as a new BBC Panorama investigation claims that in 2017 the British-Iranian mother, 42, was on the brink of release from her five-year prison sentence before a secret deal collapsed.
Mr Ratcliffe told the documentary, which looks at the detention of western citizens in the country, that the family had been given a date of December 28 2017 for his wife’s return to the UK but the arrangement fell through.
It has been claimed that the charity worker was held to force the UK into settling a £400million dispute dating back to 1979 when Britain sold 1,500 tanks to the Shah of Iran but refused to deliver them after the regime was toppled by the new Islamic Republic.
Asked about claims Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was being held to force the UK into settling the debt, Mr Ratcliffe told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “It’s completely outrageous to be holding people and using them as collateral.
“Behind closed doors the Government will admit things, certainly previous ministers have been quite open with us. It’s fair that neither government likes to be too honest about what is going on.” Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran in April 2016 while travelling home to London with her daughter Gabriella, now six.
She was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly plotting against the Iranian government, a charge she has always denied. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has served four years in prison and is on temporary release under effective house arrest at her parents’ home in Tehran due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Ratcliffe, who was reunited with Gabriella when she returned to London in 2019, said she was “counting down the months” until the her current sentence comes to an end next spring, but expressed fears she may now face a second court case.
He told GMB: “Behind closed doors, they keep saying there’s a second court case, they keep talking about running it. My fear is that’s what happens. Most evenings [Gabriella] will be tearful and miss mummy, she will ask when mummy is coming back. She was discussing yesterday how long it’s been since mummy cuddled her.”
He said the ordeal has been damaging to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has one bag packed in case she is sent back to prison and another for if she can finally go back home.
Panorama is on BBC1 tonight at 7.30pm.
