LONDON: The announcement that detained British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe will spend another year behind bars in Iran has been met with fury and accusations that Tehran is treating her as a bargaining chip.
Mother-of-one Zaghari-Ratcliffe had just finished a five-year jail term on charges of spying, which she vehemently denied, when she was sentenced to an additional year in prison on propaganda charges.
Her lawyer said the charges relate to her involvement in a demonstration in London more than 10 years ago, and giving an interview to the BBC’s Persian-language service.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I don’t think it’s right at all that Nazanin should be sentenced to any more time in jail ... I think it’s wrong that she’s there in the first place.” He added that his government is working “very hard” to secure her release.
Kate Allen, director at Amnesty International UK, said in a statement sent to Arab News: “This is terrible news, and further proof of the incredible cruelty of the Iranian regime.”
She added: “Nazanin’s first trial in 2016 was grossly unfair — a typical Revolutionary Court sham trial on trumped-up national security-related charges. After yet another sham trial and another harsh sentence it’s time, surely, for the UK government to say enough is enough.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has suffered long periods of solitary confinement while in Iran, and her physical and mental health have both suffered.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe has repeatedly warned that her declining mental health could trigger a suicide attempt. Allen said: “We fear that going back to jail will be almost too much for Nazanin to bear.”
Ratcliffe said the charges are “clearly a negotiating tactic” by Tehran, which is currently in the midst of indirect talks with the US over the future of Iran’s nuclear program. His view has been echoed by politicians, rights groups and Iranian opposition figures.
Zaghari-Ractliffe’s local MP Tulip Siddiq said the new sentence is “absolutely devastating news” and “another abusive use of her as a bargaining chip.”
Tom Tugendhat, chair of Britain’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “This brutal Iranian regime is playing with the life of an innocent woman to attempt leverage. My sympathies go out to Nazanin’s family who are made to suffer along with her.”
Tehran has long been accused of detaining dual nationals to use as hostages as part of its foreign policy.
Many — including her husband — have linked Zaghari-Ractliffe’s case to a deal that Britain made with Iran’s pre-revolution government.
Kyle Orton, an independent geopolitical researcher, told Arab News: “This is pure hostage diplomacy.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment is thought to be related to £400 million ($555 million) owed to the regime by Britain from a shah-era arms deal, which Britain says it cannot pay without breaching US sanctions.
Orton added: “It’s galling for those who massacred the officials who made that deal to be trying to collect on their behalf.”
Ali Safavi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based opposition group, told Arab News that the additional sentence is “hardly surprising; it’s a blatant example of blackmail and bullying.”
He said: “The only answer is decisiveness, otherwise the mullahs’ regime will never abandon hostage-taking and imprisoning innocent people in exchange for its terrorist agents and spies in Western countries or in securing economic concessions.”
Safavi added: “European powers should’ve realized by now that no amount of political and economic concession will bring this religious dictatorship to its senses.”
