Why is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe still in prison?
The second of April marked the day Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual citizen, was arrested.
Nazanin is a 38 year old woman arrested on this day in 2016 while intending to depart Iran with her 22-month old daughter. She was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards at the airport and after spending six months in prison she was sentenced to five years behind bars on “espionage” charges.
Gabriel, Nazanin’s daughter, has been in Iran since her mother’s arrested and cannot return to her father in the UK since authorities have confiscated her British passport.
Amnesty International and the British Foreign Ministry have demanded Nazanin’s release. In an interview with Sky News the British Foreign Ministry spokesman said this country is concerned over the detention of dual citizens, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and this concern has reached the highest political ranks in Iran.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Minister Boris Johnson have raised the issue of Nazanin’s release with their counterparts, according to the British Foreign Ministry spokesman.
In response to this request, the Mizan news agency in Iran, associated to the judiciary, issued a ridiculous note describing the measure “intrusive” and “irrelevant”. The note also described Nazanin as a “security convict.”
Nazanin “seeks to overthrow the system” and “was in contact with Western spy services,” according to the Iranian judiciary. The Revolutionary Guards also issued a statement accusing Nazanin of “participating with overthrowing parties.”
“They have told my wife’s family this is no ordinary case. They continuously send us messages and threats, clearly showing this case is politically motivated. In the summer we received a message saying if the British government is willing to work with the IRGC, they will close the case,” Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
He referred to remarks made by Iran’s security officials and concluded his wife will not be released until the $650 million demanded is paid.
It appears that Iran, after receiving a huge amount of money from the weak Obama administration for a number of kidnapped dual Iranian-American citizens, is encouraged to resort to the same scenario with Nazanin.
The repressive regime in Iran has shown through the past four decades how it only understands the language of force. Therefore, if Western governments act in an alliance against Iran’s IRGC, and blacklist this entity for its terrorist measures, this regime will no longer resort to blackmailing governments. Kidnapping is the result of Western appeasement with Iran and its terrorism practices
