Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has planned to speak to foreign secretary Dominic Raab tomorrow – as her husband warned the chance to secure her release has ‘almost gone’.
The mother-of-one is expected to speak to foreign secretary Dominic Raab over the phone to ask him what his plans to help her out of prison are.
Yesterday, US Navy veteran Michael White was freed from prison in Iran in return for the release of two Iranian prisoners.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe told The Times: ‘She asked me how is it that the US, which doesn’t even have diplomatic relations with Iran, has three people out in the last year and we have none? What on earth are they doing?’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in prison in the country since her arrest at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while travelling with her young daughter, Gabriella, to meet her parents in April 2016.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, is expected to speak to foreign secretary Dominic Raab over the phone to ask him to pay a 40-year-old £400million debt in exchange for her release
When she speaks to Mr Raab she ‘will be asking him not if he cares but does he have a plan,’ Mr Ratcliffe added.
He claimed his wife was being used as a political bargaining chip as the Iranian government tried to force the UK to pay the £400million debt owed for a shipment of tanks in the 1980s.
Mr Ratcliffe said Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab had admitted this was the case privately, but neither have made the information public.
The Government has not paid the debt because of issues with how much interest is now owed, something that is currently going through British courts, he added.
The UK would also be unable to directly send the money to the country without breaking US banking sanctions. But the countries have allegedly discussed paying the money in kind through humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile Mr White was flown out of Iran yesterday, a day after an Iranian scientist arrived in Iran following his release by US immigration authorities.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe (pictured with the couple’s daughter Gabriella) said his wife was being used as a political bargaining chip as the Iranian government tried to force the UK to pay the £400million debt owed for a shipment of tanks in the 1980s
An Iranian-American doctor convicted for export violations in Atlanta was also freed.
Switzerland has confirmed it helped to mediate the exchange.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, suggested similar exchanges could be arranged for others held by Iran. ‘This can happen for all prisoners,’ Mr Zarif tweeted. ‘No need for cherry picking.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is hoping to be updated on Saturday on the progress of a bid for clemency but her husband said it feels like ‘momentum has stalled’.
She had been in Iran’s notorious Evin prison since 2016 but was released on furlough on March 17 as the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the country.
Her family were hopeful that she might be permanently released as part of an amnesty for 3,000 prisoners at the end of Ramadan, which was announced by the country’s supreme leader.
But more than two weeks after Eid, her husband said: ‘The moment of opportunity is now almost gone.’
Mr Ratcliffe said he believed his wife’s clemency is being blocked by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard despite her case having the support of the country’s judiciary.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in prison in the country since her arrest at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while travelling with her young daughter, Gabriella (pictured together), to meet her parents in April 2016
He said: ‘We should be getting an update from the prosecutor’s office tomorrow, though in light of the games over the past couple of weeks, (we) are not holding our breath.’
He added: ‘Nazanin has asked to speak to the Foreign Secretary to find out just how the UK is getting her home.
‘It has felt for a while like momentum has stalled, and that the moment of opportunity is now almost gone.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.
She has been afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which states that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law.
It comes a month after Mr Ratcliffe told Good Morning Britain his wife was enjoying spending time with her daughter on video calls since being released on furlough.
He revealed that she has been playing dolls with her five-year-old daughter Gabriella over Skype.
Speaking on GMB he said: ‘We are on the cusp of potentially good news.
Mr Ratcliffe, his daughter Gabriella and his mother Barbara, ahead of a meeting with British Prime Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street in London on January 23
‘Nazanin’s lawyer was being brought down in front of the prosecutor’s office tomorrow to get a decision on her clemency. So she could be on that list, we don’t know yet.’
Mr Ratcliffe said legally his wife should be on the list “because she meets all the criteria”, adding that the family is “hopeful”.
‘Nazanin’s been under lockdown for eight weeks,’ he said today. ‘No one can visit her because she’s a high level political prisoner.’
But he added: ‘It’s lovely to be able to speak on Skype to her.’ And he said that during the disruption of the coronavirus crisis, their daughter has been able to play with her mother over video chat.
‘For her the disruption has been mitigated by having Nazanin on the phone and playing dolls with her on Skype,’ he said.
Mr Ratcliffe said that although he felt ‘euphoric’ when he heard his wife could finally be released, he is preparing for the worst.
Pictured: Richard and his daughter, Gabriella, speak on Skype to Nazanin who is being held in Iran
‘It would be great if we could become a normal family,’ he said. ‘There’s a chance we’ll find out in the next couple of weeks if it doesn’t happen in the next couple of weeks we need to think it hasn’t happened.
‘Part of me needs to prepare for the fact she might sent back to prison and then keep on campaigning and pressuring the government.’
He renewed his call for the government to do everything they can for his wife, despite Boris Johnson being consumed by the coronavirus pandemic.
‘He’s got a lot going on and the government always does have,’ he told the programme.
‘It’s clear the Foreign Secretary is following this case closely. When I met the Prime Minister back in January he was clear he wanted to do everything he could but after four years part of me doesn’t trust that it will happen.’