Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to 5 YEARS in prison in Tehran in a secret trial without due process. This is her story.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 37 year old charity worker, was on holiday visiting her family in Iran. She was at the airport returning to the UK on the 3rd April when she was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. She has been transferred to an unknown location in Kerman Province, 1,000 kilometres south of Tehran, and is being held in solitary confinement. Gabriella Ratcliffe her 22 month old daughter (who has British citizenship only) has had her British passport confiscated, and is stranded in Iran with her grandparents.
Nazanin has not been allowed to access a lawyer or her daughter. She has not been able to call out of the country to speak to me, her British husband, and the Red Cross have not been able to make contact. There have been no charges. Nazanin has informed her family that she has been required to sign a confession under duress, its content unknown. Her family have been informed that the investigation relates to an issue of ‘national security’.
It is hard to understand how a young mother and her small child on holiday could be considered an issue of national security. She has been to Iran to visit her family regularly since making Britain her home. Nazanin currently works as a project manager for the Thomson-Reuters Foundation; which delivers charitable projects around the world. It does not work in Iran. Nazanin has now been in solitary confinement for over 30 days.
If you want to help Nazanin and daughter home you can sign her British Husband Richard Ratcliffe’s petition calling on the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to use his power and intervene.
