Richard Ratcliffe has finally ended his hunger strike after 21 days saying his daughter needs both her parents. There was an unsuccessful meeting with a Foreign Office minister about his wife’s continued detention in Iran.
Talks between UK Government officials and Iran’s Deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, had happened, and about 30 minutes later, James Cleverly updated that Richard has accused the British Government of not doing enough to resolve Nazanin’s situation and described being ‘stuck in the same status quo.’
According to Mrs. Ratcliffe's family, she was told by Iranian authorities that she was being detained because of the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding £400 million debt to Iran.
Mr. Ratcliffe said the Government ‘clammed up’ and would not talk about the debt during his discussion with them. However, as per the Guardian reports, the UK told Iran it could not pay the debt owing to restrictions brought by sanctions, quoting Tehran’s deputy foreign minister.
Moreover, Mr. Bagheri Kani said the two sides had agreed on a payment of less than £500 million taking interest into account and said, “Now what the UK government are bringing up is the limitations on banking interactions, saying it is a difficulty, and finally they cannot do it.” he added that the issue of repaying the debt was separate from the detention of British-Iranian nationals, but said, “ if these incidents were resolved, it would naturally have to influence the relationship between the two countries.”
A spokesman for the FCDO said that Mr. Kani had been pressed on the need for Iran to release all British nationals unfairly detained in Iran. They added that Mr. Ratcliffe then met Mr. Cleverly to reaffirm their commitment to reuniting his wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with her family in the UK.
Mr. Ratcliffe had told the reporters that he felt a little bit more deflated, saying, “ We’re still stuck in the same status quo. We're still stuck in the same problems that led us to end up on hunger strike. I don’t feel they’ve given a clear enough message to Iran that hostage-taking is wrong. I don’t think there are any consequences to Iran at present for its continuing taking hostages of British citizens and using them. “
His wife, Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has been in custody in Iran since 2016 when she was taking their daughter, Gabriella, to see her family. She was accused of plotting to overthrow the government and was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Evin Prison and one year under house arrest.
The Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh, called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to personally intervene in the case of Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other detainees. He said, “the UK government must take decisive action to end the cruel games that Nazanin and her family have been forced to endure over the past five and a half years. We need a clearly articulated strategy for bringing Nazanin and all arbitrarily detained British nationals' home from Iran once and for all.”
Richard started his hunger strike after his wife had lost her latest appeal. Mr. Ratcliffe began his hunger strike outside the Foreign, Common Wealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London on 24 October.
Richard Ratcliffe's Wife Details
Richard Ratcliffe begs to bring back his wife, Nazanin Ratcliffe, home
Mr. Ratcliffe told the Standard that his wife, Nazanin, is worried about him, saying, “ two weeks ago she was worried about prison, now she is worried about the weather in London and worried about me. I'm a middle-aged man not used to sleeping on the street, let alone hunger strike. But I just want my wife home and so does our daughter. She should be home.”
Nazanin was sentenced to five years in prison on a trumped-up national security charge, and the evidence used against her was kept secret in September 2016.
She was not allowed to access a lawyer or her daughter.
Then in 2020, Nazanin was released on furlough and is currently staying with her parents in Tehran, being watched on. However, she was taken to court and faced another arbitrary charge of spreading propaganda against the system. On 7 March, Nazanin’s ankle tag was removed, and it was the end of her sentence. But she has been sentenced to one more year in prison in Iran and a ban on leaving the country. In October, she lost her appeal, and she is currently in prison again.
The new sentence was immediately condemned by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson which said, “I don’t think it is right at all that Nazanin should be sentenced to any more time in jail. I think it is wrong that she is there in the first place and we will be working very hard to secure her release from Iran, her ability to return to her family here in the UK, just as we work for all our dual national cases in Iran. The Government will not stop, we will redouble our efforts, and we are working with our American friends on this issue as well."
A petition to free Nazanin Ratcliffe has reached 3,709,308 at the moment of writing.
MP for Brighton Kempton Lloyd Russell-Moyle showed his support to Richard’s campaign by visiting him on 9 November and wrote in his Instagram, “ the pain and suffering inflicted on them, including through prolonged solitary confinement and the denial of adequate medical care, violated the absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment.”
The UK government said it is indefensible and unacceptable that Iran has rejected an appeal by detained charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe against her latest sentence to which the opposition MP criticized the Government for calling Boris Johnson a 'toothless tiger.'
Richard Ratcliffe had written a love letter to his wife, writing about what the future will hold for their family and making sure that their love hasn’t diminished by being apart. He began the letter writing,
“ My Dear Nazanin,
As you sit and wait at your Parents’ home in Tehran, remember how far you’ve come. Soon you should be coming home to Gabriella and me.”
He talked about how he was fearful of the Iranian Government who had more tricks up its sleeve. He also thanked God for the pandemic coinciding so that she got to come out on home arrest, and they could talk for hours.
He also wrote about the possibility of having another baby when she gets back home. He ended the letter by writing, “Soon it will be time to relax. There's no point hoarding the injustices. In the end, it is the kindness that will linger.”
Richard urged the British Government to step up efforts to free his wife as he told that his wife discovered lumps in her breasts and forced the foreign secretary to go to Tehran to help her.
After exiting from the meeting with Prime minister Bors Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Richard told the reporters that there was no breakthrough and the Government must be tough with Iran. He said, “ I don’t think I have come away thinking Nazanin is coming tomorrow or even next week, and I will think carefully about what I tell her on the phone on Saturday about where the hope is to come.” He had also talked about how Sympathy wasn’t enough to get out of this.