UK marks 2,000 days since Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained in Iran

Richard Ratcliffe, husband of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and their seven year-old daughter Gabriella mark 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran in Parliament Square, London, Sept. 23, 2021. (AP)

• Zaghari-Ratcliffe was originally sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of plotting the overthrow of Iran’s government
• Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her supporters and rights groups deny the charge

LONDON: The UK is working “tirelessly” to secure the return of a British-Iranian mother held in Iran, the new foreign secretary said on Thursday.
Liz Truss said she “pressed” her Iranian counterpart on Wednesday regarding the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, “and will continue to press until she returns home.”
Truss and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly, which is taking place in New York.
“Today marks 2,000 days since Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s cruel separation from her family,” Truss said. “She is going through an appalling ordeal.
“We are working tirelessly to secure her return home to her family.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a former Thomson Reuters Foundation employee, was detained in Tehran in April 2016 and sentenced a few months later to five years in prison on spying charges.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and daughter, Gabriella, set up a large, interactive snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square on Thursday to symbolize that they have been caught between both governments.
“She (Truss) has met with the Iranian foreign minister, she has been raising Nazanin’s case, there’s been acknowledgement, so it’s felt like, OK, we’re not forgotten and probably after 2,000 days there’s always ups and downs, and drift and things just passing by without anything moving,” Ratcliffe said.
He said he hoped that Nazanin will be home soon, but said in the meantime, both he and his daughter are “holding up.”
Earlier this week he said he had spoken with Truss about the case.
The campaign to free his wife has called on the British government to take tough measures, such as sanctioning individuals, to protect people from what they describe as state-sanctioned hostage taking.