LONDON: Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran for over five years now, on Thursday vowed to continue the hunger strike that he began on Sunday following a meeting with the UK’s Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss.
He accused the British government of being “too timid” in its efforts to bring home his wife from detention in Iran.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, was seized in Iran in 2016 and then jailed, initially on national security charges — which she has always vehemently denied — and then later on charges of creating anti-regime propaganda.
She has spent five years in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, and an additional year under house arrest in her family’s Tehran home. She has not seen her daughter Gabriella for two years.
In his meeting with Truss, Ratcliffe brought along a painted stone to remind her of the government’s promise to leave no stone unturned in its attempts to bring home his wife. After the meeting, he told the BBC that he is “disappointed” with the government.
“My criticism of the British government is they’ve not prioritized the safety of British citizens in the course of their nuclear negotiations, in the course of their discussions with Iran and other stuff’s been more important,” he said. “And actually nothing is more important for the government than protecting its own citizens.”
He is pitched up in two tents near Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street residence and the Foreign Office, with a sign reading “Free Nazanin.”
Ratcliffe undertook a hunger strike outside the Iranian Embassy in London in 2019, and Gabriella was later allowed to return from Iran to the UK.
On Monday, his local MP Tulip Siddiq told Parliament that his hunger strike is an appeal to Truss and Johnson to “do more to challenge Iran’s hostage-taking and to bring Nazanin home.”
The Foreign Office said: “Iran’s decision to proceed with these baseless charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is an appalling continuation of the cruel ordeal she is going through. Instead of threatening to return Nazanin to prison Iran must release her permanently so she can return home.” It added that it will do “all we can” to help her return home, and will continue to press Iran.