UK government giving ‘false promises’ regarding jailed Iranian-British man, says daughter

Roxanne Tahbaz told media her visit to the Foreign Office regarding the detention of her father was ‘incredibly dispiriting.’ (Reuters/File Photo)
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Updated 19 June 2022
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UK government giving ‘false promises’ regarding jailed Iranian-British man, says daughter

  • Roxanne Tahbaz accuses Foreign Office of ‘placating’ family with ‘pleasantries’

LONDON: The daughter of an Iranian-British-American tri-national imprisoned in Iran has accused the UK government of ignoring her family’s case after delivering a Father’s Day message to the UK Foreign Office.

Roxanne Tahbaz visited the Foreign Office to demand further information about the case of her father, 66-year-old Morad Tahbaz, who has been imprisoned by Tehran for more than four years.

She claimed that her appeal was transferred to an official, who said that they would pass on her message.

She said: “It was incredibly dispiriting. Father’s Day is the hardest day of all. While every day is challenging, special moments like holidays and birthdays are especially difficult for me and my siblings.

“Our father has been unjustly jailed in Iran for nearly four-and-a-half years, but (UK foreign secretary) Liz Truss and the government still haven’t informed us what they’re doing to secure his release.”

Roxanne Tahbaz said that the Foreign Office is offering token gestures in an attempt to delay her appeals.

“There doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency — nothing to suggest the foreign secretary and her office feel they need to get my father out of prison immediately,” she added.

“On Thursday, Amnesty accompanied me as I took a Father’s Day card and gift to the Foreign Office. To our dismay, neither the foreign secretary nor a minister would meet us. Instead we were greeted by another member of their team who said they’d pass on our concerns.

“It feels like the government continually attempts to placate us with pleasantries and false promises.”

The Foreign Office is said to be communicating with Morad Tahbaz’s sister-in-law as well as his wife.

In March, the UK government reached a deal with Iran to secure Morad Tahbaz’s furlough, as well as the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori.

That deal involved negotiations over a decades-old military debt totaling almost $500 million owed by the UK to Iran.

Just after being granted furlough, however, Tahbaz — a prominent conservationist who was arrested during a 2018 crackdown — was forced to return to prison.

Roxanne Tahbaz has long campaigned for her father’s release, and has repeatedly claimed that the UK Foreign Office has ignored her requests for help.

After a demonstration in April, she said: “We want them to follow through on the promise they made to us.

“We were always led to believe over the past four years that he was to be a part of any deal they were making, and we were led to believe he’d be coming home as part of that.”


Norway launches probe of Middle East diplomat and husband over Epstein links

Updated 6 sec ago
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Norway launches probe of Middle East diplomat and husband over Epstein links

  • Mona Juul resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq
  • Juul and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen played key roles in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords
OSLO: Norwegian police said Monday they have launched an “aggravated corruption” investigation against a high-profile diplomat, Mona Juul, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen, over the couple’s links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The police economic crime unit Okokrim said in statement that the probe began last week and that an Oslo residence was searched on Monday, as well as a residence belonging to a witness.
“We have launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal offenses have been committed. We are facing a comprehensive and, by all accounts lengthy investigation,” Okokrim chief Pal Lonseth, said.
Juul, 66, and Rod-Larsen, 78, played key roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
Epstein left $10 million in his will to the couple’s two children, according to Norwegian media.
“Among other things, Okokrim will investigate whether she received benefits in connection to her position,” the statement said.
On Sunday, the foreign ministry announced that Juul had resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
“Juul’s contact with the convicted abuser Epstein has shown a serious lapse in judgment,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in connection to the announcement.
She had already been temporarily suspended last week pending an internal investigation by the ministry into her alleged links to Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Norway’s political and royal circles have been thrust into the eye of the Epstein storm, including the CEO of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende.
Former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland, is also being investigated for “aggravated corruption” over links to Epstein while he was chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee — which awards the Nobel Peace Prize — and as secretary general of the Council of Europe.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has also come under scrutiny for her relationship with Epstein, which on Friday she said she “deeply regretted.”
On Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store voiced support for the establishing of an independent commission set up by Parliament, to fully examine the nature of the ties between these figures and Epstein.