Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s despair as Raab skips Commons debate

‘ Am I not worth the foreign secretary coming along to answer and explain the government’s policy?’

ichard Ratcliffe (not seen) the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with his daughter Gabriella during a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London, earlier this month (EPA)

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said the British-Iranian dual national currently facing a fresh jail term in Iran felt hopeless during an urgent debate on her situation.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe watched the House of Commons proceedings from the Middle East, but said there “wasn’t anything that gave grounds for hope”, according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe.

She also questioned why the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, did not attend the debate in person but sent departmental minister James Cleverly instead.

It comes after Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was handed a new jail term of one year and a year-long travel ban in Iran on Monday, on new charges of “spreading propaganda against the regime”.

She had already served five years in prison after she was detained of charges of crimes related to national security.

Mr Ratcliffe told the PA news agency: “She watched the urgent question on the (website) link.

“What she noticed was that Dominic Raab hadn’t come to answer for the Government, a junior minister had been sent.

“It was like, ‘Listen, we have had seven of these - am I not worth the foreign secretary coming along to answer and explain the government’s policy’?

“I think she did feel that actually there wasn’t anything said that gave grounds for hope.”

Mr Cleverly, Foreign Office minister, told MPs on Tuesday that the UK would not accept dual nationals being used as “diplomats leverage”.

Britain is thought to owe Iran as much as £400 million over the non-delivery of tanks in 1979, with the shipment stopped because of the Islamic revolution.

Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, who is Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s MP, told the Commons that she has “seen no evidence” the Boris Johnson is actively trying to secure her constituent’s release.

“At the heart of this tragic case is the prime minister’s dismal failure to release my constituent and to stand up for her, and his devastating blunder in 2017 when he was foreign secretary - when he exposed his complete ignorance of this tragic case and put more harm in Nazanin’s way,” she said.

“The prime minister did not even arrange for UK officials to attend Nazanin’s recent court hearing, which might have ensured she got a free and fair trial. He still hasn’t got his government to pay the £400 million debt that we as a country owe Iran.

“We MPs might be many things but we’re not naive. We cannot deny the fact that Nazanin was handed a fresh new sentence a week after the IMF’s debt court hearing was delayed.”

Mr Cleverly told Ms Siddiq during the urgent question: “Her anger and frustration is misdirected because Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the other British dual nationals held in arbitrary detention are being held by Iran. It is on them.”

Mr Ratcliffe accused ministers of “enabling abuse” his wife has suffered in Iran due to a “reluctance to do anything that they think Iran wouldn’t like”.

“In a context of abuse, if you’re not willing to challenge the abuse, you are enabling the abuse,” he told the PA news agency. “There is no ambiguity. It doesn’t matter what kind of abuse we’re talking about.

“Either you say that’s not acceptable - and you show that’s not acceptable - or you allow it to become normal.”