Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe back in UK from Iran and reunited with family

[s28]

Hope Iranian authorities will see sense here. Shouldn't deprive a young child of their parent.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/aishagani/...avid-cameron-t?utm_term=.oaW67omgO#.kvLB0v531

The Family Of A Mother Detained In Iran Want David Cameron To Help Bring Her Home

Loved ones of charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held without charge for more than a month, have called for her urgent release. Her arrest “had to be a mistake”, one said.

 

[s28]

The family of a woman detained in an Iranian prison for nearly a month without charge have called on the prime minister to help secure her release.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, has been in solitary confinement since 3 April following her arrest by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard at a Tehran airport after a holiday visiting family.

The British-Iranian charity worker was separated from her young daughter and transferred to an unknown location in Kerman Province, 1,000km south of Tehran.

Gabriella Ratcliffe, who is 22 months old, had her British passport confiscated and so cannot return to the UK. She is currently staying with her grandparents in Iran, the family said.

Husband Richard Ratcliffe, from north London, has been unable to speak with his wife but said it is understood she has faced intense periods of interrogation with no access to a lawyer.

It is also believed she has signed a “confession” under duress, but its contents are unknown. Family in Iran say they were told the investigation relates to an issue of national security.

Ratcliffe told BuzzFeed News his wife was “not a political person”. “She’s a kind, caring person and the hard bit is being in solitary confinement when she is used to being with children, laughing and dancing,” he said.

 

[Yossarian]

If her immediate family is allowed to visit perhaps she will tell them what she is being accused of and what she has confessed to.

Husband Richard Ratcliffe, from north London, has been unable to speak with his wife but said it is understood she has faced intense periods of interrogation with no access to a lawyer.
It is also believed she has signed a “confession” under duress, but its contents are unknown. Family in Iran say they were told the investigation relates to an issue of national security.

If there's been no contact, how does the husband know she's made a confession? And if he doesn't know what she's charged with and what she's confessed to, how does he know it was under duress?

I suspect there's a lot more to this than what the article states.

 

[s28]

I can understand the Iranian authorities being extremely paranoid and I can understand why Western intelligence agencies might try to use female with child as a potential spy just look at what British undercover police have done to their OWN citizens in #Spycops scandal. But sometimes you have to just step back and say ok there are kids involved and we are going to be the bigger person and show we live to better standards.

http://www.newlawjournal.co.uk/nlj/content/spy-cops-under-scrutiny

While most acknowledge that undercover policing plays an important role in the fight against crime, significant concerns have been raised about the way undercover units have operated. The Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) are among the units that have been criticised. Undercover officers Peter Francis and Mark Kennedy have spoken to the media about what they got up to as members of the SDS and NPOIU respectively. One gets a flavour of this from the second Operation Herne report by Chief Constable Mick Creedon, which concentrated on the allegations made by Peter Francis: “The media articles, the television programme and the book broadly reflect the following allegations:

That SDS officers’ engaged in sexual relationships whilst deployed.
That the SDS used deceased children’s identities in the creation of their covert identity.
That the SDS targeted “Black Justice Campaigns”.
That SDS officers appeared at court in their covert identities.
That SDS officers supplied intelligence to “The Blacklist” [ie provided information on Trade Union activists to a blacklisting agency].
That SDS officers were tasked to gain information that might be used to “smear” the Stephen Lawrence family.
That family liaison officers assigned to the Stephen Lawrence family reported intelligence to Special Branch.
That SDS officers were tasked to gain information that might be used to “smear” Duwayne Brooks [the friend of Stephen Lawrence and witness of his murder].
That he was prevented by senior officers from disclosing SDS involvement to the Macpherson Inquiry.”

 

[Yossarian]

I can understand the Iranian authorities being extremely paranoid and I can understand why Western intelligence agencies might try to use female with child as a potential spy just look at what British undercover police have done to their OWN citizens in #Spycops scandal. But sometimes you have to just step back and say ok there are kids involved and we are going to be the bigger person and show we live to better standards.

Unless I've completely misunderstood your comment as above, are you suggesting that (female) spies, who have children, should be let off and not be prosecuted since it will impact on the children because the children will end up being separated from their mothers?

Shouldn't female spies, and their handlers, think of that before they embark upon their spying activities? But of course not, since it's the fact of being mothers with children is what provides them with the perfect cover in the first place.

In others words, mothers using their children to provide cover, and then getting caught, end up being 'victims' of these 'foreign regimes', whilst these 'foreign regimes' end up being the bad guys if the spies they catch turn out to be females using their children as cover?

Not saying that the woman mentioned in the OP was definitely involved in spying activities, but obviously the Iranians thought she was.

As mentioned, if I did misunderstand your comment as above, then obviously I'm doing you a disservice, and that is wrong. In which case, my apologies.

 

[Itachi]

OP rarely gives any opinions. From history, most of his posts are with agenda and propaganda. Not saying this is the same but it is one of the reasons why people avoid threads made by op.

 

[s28]

There is a petition with 170,000 signatures so far. Please read this and consider signing it...

My wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37 year old charity worker, was on holiday visiting her family in Iran. She was at the airport returning to the UK on the 3rd April when she was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. She has been transferred to an unknown location in Kerman Province, 1,000 kilometres south of Tehran, and is being held in solitary confinement.
Gabriella Ratcliffe our 22 month old daughter (who has British citizenship only) has had her British passport confiscated, and is stranded in Iran with her grandparents.
Nazanin has not been allowed to access a lawyer or her daughter. She has not been able to call out of the country to speak to me, her British husband, and the Red Cross have not been able to make contact.
There have been no charges. Nazanin has informed her family that she has been required to sign a confession under duress, its content unknown. Her family have been informed that the investigation relates to an issue of ‘national security’.
It is hard to understand how a young mother and her small child on holiday could be considered an issue of national security. She has been to Iran to visit her family regularly since making Britain her home.
Nazanin currently works as a project manager for the Thomson-Reuters Foundation; which delivers charitable projects around the world. It does not work in Iran.
Nazanin has now been in solitary confinement for over 30 days.
Please help bring my wife and daughter home by signing my petition calling on our Prime Minister David Cameron to use his power and intervene.

 

[s28]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Charity worker detained + toddler's UK passport seized while visiting family in Iran. Husband petitioning 4 release: <a href="https://t.co/ARQQu0L5uX">https://t.co/ARQQu0L5uX</a></p>— Alison Meuse (@AliTahmizian) <a href="https://twitter.com/AliTahmizian/status/730748817969045505">12 May 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[s28]

Extraordinary Boris Johnson Gaffe Could Cost British Woman 5 Years In Iran Prison

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Boris Johnson gaffe risks five more years in Iran jail for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe <a href="https://t.co/OcUynCP0zc">https://t.co/OcUynCP0zc</a> <a href="https://t.co/dvXNWkw1Ba">pic.twitter.com/dvXNWkw1Ba</a></p>— The Times of London (@thetimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/927515029678813185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">6 November 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[s28]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I have written to Boris Johnson in the strongest terms. He MUST correct what he said about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe <a href="https://t.co/rx6AJf4AM9">https://t.co/rx6AJf4AM9</a></p>— Emily Thornberry (@EmilyThornberry) <a href="https://twitter.com/EmilyThornberry/status/927608703200694273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">6 November 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-britain-zaghari/iran-releases-british-iranian-aid-worker-zaghari-ratcliffe-from-house-arrest-but-court-summons-looms-idUSKBN2AZ0BA

Iran has released British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from house arrest at the end of her five-year prison sentence, but she has been summoned to court again on another charge, her lawyer said on Sunday.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 and later convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who served out most of her sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison, was released last March during the coronavirus pandemic and kept under house arrest, but her movements were restricted and she was barred from leaving the country.

On Sunday the authorities removed her ankle tag.

“She was pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader last year, but spent the last year of her term under house arrest with electronic shackles tied to her feet. Now they’re cast off,” her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told an Iranian website. “She has been freed.”

Iran’s judiciary was not immediately available to comment about the release. Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters, deny the charge.

Kermani said a hearing for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s second case has been scheduled on March 14.

“In this case, she is accused of propaganda against the Islamic Republic’s system for participating in a rally in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009 and giving interview to the BBC Persian TV channel at the same time,” Kermani said.

He said he hoped that “this case will be closed at this stage, considering the previous investigation”.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe told Sky News on Sunday she was “pleased” her ankle tag had been removed but said the news was “mixed” from Iran due to the court summons. Ratcliffe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Antonio Zappulla, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said the foundation was “delighted that her jail term was ended” and that she had told him she was “‘ecstatic’ to be able to sit in a cafe and have a coffee”.

“Nazanin must be given her freedom, as was promised.”

British foreign minister Dominic Raab welcomed the removal of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag but said Iran continued to put her and her family through a “cruel and an intolerable ordeal”.

“She must be released permanently so she can return to her family in the UK. We have relayed to the Iranian authorities in the strongest possible terms that her continued confinement is unacceptable,” Raab said in a statement.

Her lawyer told Iranian state TV he had no news on the status of her travel ban.

British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq said she had spoken to Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family and that her first trip would be to see her grandmother.

The detentions of dozens of dual nationals and foreigners have complicated ties between Tehran and several European countries including Germany, France and Britain, all parties to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six powers.

The release come as Iran and the United States are trying to revive the deal, which former U.S. president abandoned in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Tehran responded by scaling down its compliance.

 

[Last Monetarist]

'Big grin' from British-Iranian aid worker in Iran, but doubt about fate, husband says

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-britain-zaghari/big-grin-from-british-iranian-aid-worker-in-iran-but-doubt-about-fate-husband-says-idUSKBN2B021F

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was full of joy after she was freed from house arrest in Tehran, but her fate is still in doubt with a new court case in a week, her husband said on Monday.

“She’s completely unambiguous on it and it’s been lovely to have that, you know, joy on the other side of the phone,” her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, told Reuters.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe served a five year sentence which ended on Sunday. An ankle bracelet was removed, allowing her freedom to travel in Iran, but she still cannot leave the country, as she has been ordered to appear for a new court case on March 14 on charges of propaganda against the Iranian state.

Despite the ambiguity about her future, her husband said she saw had a “big grin” during a video call. “It’s clearly a good step that they took the ankle tag off, they observed Iranian law,” he said.

The new court case “is a bit ambiguous at the moment but it’s there,” he said. “In truth until we get to Sunday we won’t really know what it means or where we are.”

He spoke outside the Iranian embassy in London, where he and the couple’s six-year-old daughter, Gabriella, tried and failed to deliver a petition calling for her to be allowed to return home.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation charity, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 and convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

She served out most of her sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison, but was moved to her parents’ house under house arrest last March because of concern about the coronavirus.

Iran’s judiciary was not immediately available to comment about her release. Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters, deny the charge.

 

[MenInG]

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been sentenced to another year in prison on charges of "propaganda activities against the regime" in Iran, according to reports

 

[Firebat]

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: UK to pay Tehran £400m to free British-Iranian national, state TV reports

 

[Last Monetarist]

Well, if that's the price the UK government is willing to pay to free Zaghari-Ratcliffe, then the Iranians are vindicated for detaining her this long.

 

[Tubs]

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: UK to pay Tehran £400m to free British-Iranian national, state TV reports

Why did it take so long and a resentencing for them to cough up the dosh? Seems a bit strange to me.

 

[Last Monetarist]

Why did it take so long and a resentencing for them to cough up the dosh? Seems a bit strange to me.

They probably thought it might have been easier to do a traditional prisoner exchange, but whatever Iran had on Zaghari-Ratcliffe was so important that they called the UK government's bluff.

 

[Last Monetarist]

The US State Department has denied the story.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-us-agree-prisoner-swap-release-frozen-funds-says-lebanese-pro-iranian-2021-05-02/

Iranian state television said on Sunday that Tehran would free four Americans accused of spying in exchange for four Iranians held in the United States and the release of $7 billion in frozen Iranian funds.

However the U.S. government denied that an exchange was in the works.

The state TV, quoting an Iranian official, also said British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe would be released once Britain had paid off a debt on military equipment owed to Tehran.

A British Foreign Office official played down that report.

Iran and world powers are holding talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord that Washington abandoned three years ago.

Iranian officials told Reuters last month that an interim deal could be a way to gain time for a lasting settlement that involved unfreezing Iranian funds blocked under U.S. sanctions.

"Informed source says Biden administration has agreed to release four Iranian prisoners jailed for bypassing U.S. sanctions in exchange for four American 'spies'," the Iranian state TV report said on Sunday.

"Release of Nazanin Zaghari in exchange for UK's payment of its 400 million pound debt to Iran has also been finalized. The source also said the Biden administration has agreed to pay Iran $7 billion," it said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price told Reuters: "Reports that a prisoner swap deal has been reached are not true".

"As we have said, we always raise the cases of Americans detained or missing in Iran. We will not stop until we are able to reunite them with their families."

Ron Klain, White House chief of staff, also denied the report. "Unfortunately, that report is untrue. There is no agreement to release these four Americans," Klain said on CBS "Face the Nation".

Tehran and the powers have been meeting in Vienna since early April to work on steps that must be taken, touching on U.S. sanctions and Iran's alleged breaches of the 2015 deal, to bring Tehran and Washington back into full compliance with the accord. Iran says $20 billion of its oil revenue has been frozen in countries like South Korea, Iraq and China under the U.S. sanctions since 2018.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, said no deal had been reached with Iran in Vienna.

"There is still a fair distance to travel to close the remaining gaps," he said. "And those gaps are over what sanctions the United States and other countries will roll back. They are over what nuclear restrictions Iran will accept on its program to ensure that they can never get a nuclear weapon." On the Zaghari-Ratcliffe case, British foreign minister Dominic Raab told Times Radio earlier on Sunday : "We recognise the IMS debt should be repaid and we're looking at arrangements for securing that".

A Foreign Office official later played down the speculation on her release.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation charity, was freed from house arrest in March at the end of a sentence for seeking to overthrow Iran's government.

An Iranian court sentenced her last month to another year in jail, weeks after she finished the prior five-year sentence, a decision Britain called "inhumane".

She was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 and later convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters, deny all charges against her and say she was only visiting relatives in Iran.

 

[Firebat]

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: UK and Iran in talks over debt but 'unlinked' to case

The UK and Iran are in discussions over a £400m debt that the UK owes, foreign office minister James Cleverly has said - but the talks are not linked to the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

The UK owes the money for failing to deliver tanks Iran bought in the 1970s.

British-Iranian national Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is in jail in Iran, believes she has been imprisoned as leverage for the debt.

"There are two entirely separate issues," the prime minister said.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Hartlepool, Boris Johnson said ministers were doing "everything we can to look after the interests of Nazanin and all the very difficult dual national cases we have in Tehran".

The case of Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe made headlines again in recent weeks after she was sentenced to another year in prison, just weeks after she reached the end of a five-year sentence. She was first jailed in Tehran in 2016 on spying charges, which she has always denied.

Her husband, Richard, maintains she is being used as a bargaining chip in the dispute over the unpaid debt, as well as leverage in talks over the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

On Sunday, Iranian state TV suggested the UK had paid the £400m debt - but the UK government said nothing had changed.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday, Foreign Office minister Mr Cleverly said: "The situation with regards to the... military contract from the 1970s which has dragged on for decades, those negotiations are ongoing. They have been for a long while, sadly, but they are ongoing."

Asked if the talks were getting anywhere, Mr Cleverly said: "There's a legal process tied up with this as well. Iran most recently stepped away from that legal process which has of course delayed things.

"We are looking at ways of resolving what has been a multi-decade long problem.

"The reports that we had over the weekend linking that work with the incarceration and the arbitrary detention of British dual nationals I think was completely inappropriate - they are separate issues, one massively predates the other."

He said the imprisonment of dual nationals in Iran "should be unlinked to the multi-decade long dispute with regard to the tanks".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56969519

 

[Robert]

Iran wants £140M back from UK before freeing Nazanin

Seems as though HM Gov stiffed Iran for £140M paid for Chieftain tanks back before Thatcher - when the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah, the tanks were never delivered.

Now the Iranians are using poor Nazanin as a lever.

I say pay back what we owe and get Nazanin home.

But de Pfeffel won’t do that as his own bad judgement as Foreign Sec will be called into question.

 

[Technics 1210]

£400M

https://news.sky.com/story/nazanin-...sh-iranian-national-state-tv-reports-12293267

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I read about it this morning. We should pay the money anyway if it belongs to them. Seems like a legit way of getting her back home so don't really see why we wouldn't do it.

 

[Technics 1210]

What the media fail to report on in depth is that Nazanin is a dual national, UK/Iran. The moment she entered Iran, she automatically ceased protection from the UK. This is why the FO has been powerless in demanding her release.

More so, her husband claims she was asked to spy for Iran : https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...ffe-health-fears-over-iran-jail-hunger-strike

Still begs the question, why her? She's just a loving caring mother who lives in the UK as per UK press - there are plenty of bigger fish Iran could've imprisoned.

There is more to this story than meets the eye.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

What the media fail to report on in depth is that Nazanin is a dual national, UK/Iran. The moment she entered Iran, she automatically ceased protection from the UK. This is why the FO has been powerless in demanding her release.

More so, her husband claims she was asked to spy for Iran : https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...ffe-health-fears-over-iran-jail-hunger-strike

Still begs the question, why her? She's just a loving caring mother who lives in the UK as per UK press - there are plenty of bigger fish Iran could've imprisoned.

There is more to this story than meets the eye.

Of course there is, but this is quite a good way out of the whole mess. Britain should take it and wash their hands of the matter.

 

[Last Monetarist]

What the media fail to report on in depth is that Nazanin is a dual national, UK/Iran. The moment she entered Iran, she automatically ceased protection from the UK. This is why the FO has been powerless in demanding her release.

More so, her husband claims she was asked to spy for Iran : https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...ffe-health-fears-over-iran-jail-hunger-strike

Still begs the question, why her? She's just a loving caring mother who lives in the UK as per UK press - there are plenty of bigger fish Iran could've imprisoned.

There is more to this story than meets the eye.

Of course, there's more to it than meets the eye, the FO is putting out boilerplate responses as per convention in these matters. One would have to be a gullible idiot with the mental capacity of an amoeba to swallow the official story that the UK are negotiating to fork over gbp 400 million for the release of an ordinary mother and 'charity worker'.

 

[Robert]

Of course there is, but this is quite a good way out of the whole mess. Britain should take it and wash their hands of the matter.

Agreed. Just pay what we owe and get her home.

 

[MenInG]

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have been reunited with their families after years held prisoner in Iran.

They landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire shortly after 1am and walked off the plane together, giving a brief wave as they stepped foot again on British soil.

SKY

 

[MenInG]

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has criticised the UK government for the delay in securing her release, saying "what happened now should have happened six years ago".

In her first news conference since arriving back in the UK, the 43-year-old thanked supporters including her "amazing, wonderful" husband Richard for campaigning for her release.

But she said the journey home had been "tough" and delays in settling a £400m debt with Iran dating back to 1979 contributed to her "cruel" six-year detention.

She said: "I was told many many times that 'oh, we're going to get you home'. That never happened.

"How many foreign secretaries does it take to get someone home? What happened now should have happened six years ago."

She added that the "meaning of freedom is never going to be complete" until Morad Tahbaz and other dual nationals are released and reunited with their families.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: "I believe that the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete as to such time that all of us who are unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families.

"To begin with Morad, but also the other dual nationals, members of religious groups, or prisoners of conscience who are, I mean, we do realise that if I have been in prison for six years there are so many other people - we don't know their names - who have been suffering in prison in Iran.

"Justice in Iran does not have any meaning."

She said she was "very grateful to whoever has been involved in getting us home" and highlighted the work of her lawyer in Iran who had been "fearlessly fighting" for her release.

Moment of return was 'precious' and 'very emotional'

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was "powerless" in prison and said she was "overwhelmed" as she landed back in the UK.

"That moment was precious," she said. "I've been waiting for that moment for such a long time.

"And I was overwhelmed, specifically to get to know Gabriella and Richard after such a long time.

"It was a very, very emotional moment."

She said after "week two or three" of her detention, Iranian officials had "told me they want something from the Brits" in a reference to the debt issue.

She further reflected on her overall experience, saying it will "always haunt her" but that there had been a "black hole" in her heart which she had left on the plane.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was joined by her husband, Richard, at Portcullis House in London to talk about her experience, along with their local MP Tulip Siddiq - who had long campaigned for her return.

Her husband said "it's nice to be retiring" from campaigning and he was "immensely pleased and proud" to have her home.

He added "people recognised our injustice" and his wife's freedom was secured because "lots of people cared".

Ms Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn and shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, met the British-Iranian charity worker for the first time on Sunday after six years of campaigning.

She told the news conference she had asked the Foreign Affairs Committee of MPs to investigate Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case.

She also paid tribute to Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her husband and their "brave" daughter Gabriella, adding they were an "ordinary family who were thrust into extraordinary circumstances and they rose to the challenge".

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained on security charges in 2016 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Imam Khomeini airport after a holiday to Iran during which she introduced her daughter to her parents.

She arrived back in Britain alongside fellow dual national Anoosheh Ashoori, who was arrested in August 2017 while visiting his elderly mother in Tehran.

The 67-year-old was detained in Evin Prison for almost five years, having been accused of spying.

Both Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori have consistently denied the allegations against them.

Campaigners are now hoping Iran will release 66-year-old British-US national Morad Tahbaz, who was held in January 2018 during a crackdown on environmental activists.

Daughter of Morad Tahbaz in emotional plea to Boris Johnson and Liz Truss

The eldest daughter of Mr Tahbaz, Roxanne Tahbaz, was invited to the news conference to highlight the ongoing case of her father.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe during a press conference hosted by their local MP Tulip Siddiq, in the Macmillan Room, Portcullis House, London, following her release from detention in Iran last week. Picture date: Monday March 21, 2022.

She said the family felt he and her mother, who had been put on a travel ban in Iran, had been "abandoned".

Following an update she had received shortly before the news conference, she said her father had not been given a furlough and had instead been returned to prison.

In a direct message to Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, she said: "We beg you to please stand by your word and bring back both of my parents".

SKY

 

[Bewal Express]

Initially I didn't believe she was a spy but now I am almost certain that she is after the UK govt paid £400mn for her release.

 

[MenInG]

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said she was forced to sign a "false confession" in front of a UK government witness before she was allowed to leave Iran.

The British-Iranian hostage survivor described the act, which was captured on camera, as "dehumanising".

She said she expects Tehran to use it against her in the future.

While "under duress", the 44-year-old charity worker claimed she was forced to admit to spying allegations made by Iran after they detained her for six years - a charge she and the UK denied.

She said she was taken to the airport by the Revolutionary Guards without seeing her parents on the day in March when she was to be freed.

"Instead I was made to sign the forced confession at the airport in the presence of the British government," Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe told the BBC.

She was then told by the Iranians that the UK had settled a historic £400m debt dating to the 1970s.

"They told me that 'you won't be able to get on the plane'. And I knew that that was like a last-minute game because I knew they were... they told me that they have been given the money," she said.

"So what is the point of making me sign a piece of paper which is incorrect? It's a false confession."

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe also told the BBC's Emma Barnett that a British official was present at the time she signed the document.

"The whole thing of me signing the forced confession was filmed," she said.

"It's a tool. So I'm sure they will show that someday."

The revelation comes after her husband Richard Ratcliffe alluded to "mistakes made at the end" of the ordeal in Iran.

Speaking earlier this month after his wife's first meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson since her release, Mr Ratcliffe said: "I think there are lessons to learn, there is a wider problem.

"We talked about the mistakes made at the end. It was rough at the end, and I think, when Nazanin is ready to talk about it, that is something that we need to go through."

Meanwhile, at a press conference following her release in March, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said it had taken the government far too long to pay the multimillion-pound debt to Iran, which helped secure her release.

She said although she could not be happier to be home, "this should have happened six years ago".

Following the remarks, she received significant backlash online from people saying she should be grateful, but Downing Street was quick to defend her.

Boris Johnson's official spokesman said: "Clearly someone who has been through something like Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has should not get any abuse.

"As a UK citizen, she is rightly able to voice her opinion on any topic she wishes."

SKY

 

[Technics 1210]

Initially I didn't believe she was a spy but now I am almost certain that she is after the UK govt paid £400mn for her release.

100%.

She is definitely a spy. No one in their right mind would pay £400M for a nobody.