Ratcliffe calls for UN’s ‘urgent intervention’ to free wife detained in Iran

LONDON:  A special request has been filed to the UN by the husband of jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, demanding that it work to free her from long-term detainment.

In order to guarantee her safe release, an “urgent intervention” is required by the UN, Richard Ratcliffe said, warning that his wife would face an “autumn in court” unless Iran’s taking of hostages is appropriately dealt with by the UK.

Tehran this week abandoned plans to release Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual-national prisoners, in a move that could signify the ambitions of Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi, who assumed office a day before Ratcliffe’s request to the UN was delivered.

“We have been relatively quiet these past months, waiting and hoping that the (UK) government’s negotiations with Iran would finally deliver,” Ratcliffe said.

“But Iran’s announcements that hostage negotiations are again on hold are a signal that things have again turned for the worse with the change of government in Iran.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was initially detained and jailed in 2016, was sentenced in April this year to an extra 12 months in prison based on spurious charges of promoting propaganda against the regime.

The request sent by Ratcliffe includes an “urgent action request and individual complaint” demanding that the UN’s working group on arbitrary detention mediate between the UK and Iran to secure his wife’s release.

“I met the UK foreign secretary this week to get his sense of things. He insisted the negotiations had come close, hoped they could be picked up again under the new regime, and that he was determined not to leave any Brits behind,” said Ratcliffe.

“I told him I feared the tide had turned, and that a summer of drift would become an autumn in court,” he added.

“I see that now as inevitable, unless the UK and the international community takes a much firmer stand against state hostage-taking, and calls it out as a crime.”

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this week condemned the continued detention of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with a spokesman saying: “Iran’s continued arbitrary detention of our dual nationals is unacceptable. We urge the Iranian authorities to release the detainees without any further delay.”