Iran Extends Temporary Release
of British-Iranian Woman
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41,
was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 after she was accused of plotting
to overthrow the government in Tehran. She has vigorously denied the charges.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in an
undated photograph. She was freed from a prison north of Tehran in mid-March,
as the Iranian authorities released prisoners amid fears about the spread of
the coronavirus. Credit...Courtesy of the Ratcliffe family, via Associated
Press
By Elian Peltier
May 20, 2020, 8:55 a.m. ET
A
British-Iranian woman who was granted temporary release from prison in Iran in
March amid the coronavirus pandemic has had her furlough extended
indefinitely, her family said on Wednesday, raising hopes that she could be granted clemency and return to
Britain.
A court in Iran sentenced the
woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, to five years in prison in 2016,
saying she had plotted to overthrow the country’s government, charges that she
and her family have vigorously denied. She was freed from the Evin prison,
north of Tehran, in mid-March, as the authorities released prisoners amid fears
about the spread of the coronavirus among detainees.
Iran was hit by the virus in
January, becoming the worst-affected country in the Middle East. Since then, it
has reported more than 124,000 cases and 7,100 deaths.
Since her
release, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation at
the time of her arrest, has been
staying with her parents in Tehran while wearing an ankle
bracelet, her family said. Her
temporary release was supposed to end on Wednesday, but her husband, Richard
Ratcliffe, said that she had been told by the Iranian authorities that it had
been extended indefinitely.
“Today is a step forward,” Mr.
Ratcliffe said by phone. “But you remain a bargaining chip all the time,” he
said of his wife. The couple have a 5-year-old daughter, Gabriella, who spent
more than three years with her mother’s family in Tehran before she was allowed
to return to Britain in October.
Mr. Ratcliffe, who spoke to Ms.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Wednesday, said his wife was relieved about the news of
her indefinite release. “It’s quite up and down,” he said. “Some days, she’s
doing fine; some days, she’s feeling that this will never end.”
A native of Iran who had lived
in London for years, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained at a Tehran airport in
2016 while trying to return to Britain with the couple’s young daughter after
visiting family. In January, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was briefly transferred
to a psychiatric hospital unit, prompting fear for her well-being.
“The great strain is on your
mental health,” Mr. Ratcliffe said about his wife’s condition. “The system is
remarkable at putting people under pressure.”
Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case
has pitted Britain against Iran in a yearslong diplomatic dispute, and her
detention has epitomized the ordeal faced by several dual
citizens who have been sentenced in Iran on conspiracy or national
security charges in recent years.
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband
of Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with their daughter, Gabriella, after meeting Prime
Minister Boris Johnson in London in January. Credit...Toby
Melville/Reuters
Western governments and human
rights organizations have long denounced the detentions as a strategy by the
Iranian authorities to use dual citizens as a leverage in the repatriation of
Iranian prisoners in other countries.
“She’s now a ‘potential good
news’ bargaining chip instead of a ‘possibly bad news’ bargaining chip,” Mr. Ratcliffe
said of his wife.
On Saturday, a French-Iranian
researcher, Fariba Adelkhah, was sentenced to six years in prison “for
gathering and conspiring against Iran’s national security,” according to her
lawyer, SaeidDehghan.
Ms. Adelkhah has been detained
in the same prison, Evin, where Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held. Ms. Adelkhah
went on a hunger strike this year, as did Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her
husband last year, to demand their unconditional release.
Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s
situation has shifted amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Ratcliffe said, and at
a time when Iran has toned down its approach toward the West
after tensions escalated this year. Iranian and American officials
were said to have recently discussed a possible prisoner swap between
an American Navy veteran, Michael White, and an unnamed Iranian-American doctor
in U.S. custody. And in March, the French researcher Roland Marchal, the
partner of Ms. Adelkhah who was arrested alongside her last year,
was released as part of a prisoner swap involving an Iranian
engineer, Jalal Ruhollahnejad, held in France and wanted in the United States.
Still, Mr. Ratcliffe said he
feared that his wife could be forced to return to prison or ordered to stay
under house detention indefinitely. Her ankle bracelet prevents her from
venturing farther than about 1,000 feet outside.
Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe will have
to check every Saturday if she has to return to prison until a decision is made
on clemency, Mr. Ratcliffe added.
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