July 24, 2018

Boris Johnson's resignation sets back jailed Ratcliffe in Iran

located:	United Kingdom, Iran
editor:	Shira Jeczmien

While Boris Johnson’s resignation as Foreign Secretary in June came as a surprise for some and for others a cause for celebration, his latest political recklessness has had catastrophic effects on British citizen, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been in jail in Tehran and separated from her young daughter Gabriella for nearly two years on falsified charges of trying to topple the Iranian Government.

In fact, according to husband Richard Ratcliffe, Johnson’s sudden resignation from May’s parliament in protest of the Prime Ministers’ publication of a soft Brexit white paper, came during the same week he was expected to give a decision on whether Ratcliffe will be given diplomatic immunity and returned back to London. Ratcliffe’s diplomatic protection had already passed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff and put on Johnson’s desk but as reported by The National, following the sudden shift of cabinet seats, “a decision by the Foreign Office would no longer be imminent.”

As the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary, Johnson had rightly endured mounting criticism for his seemingly absent grasp of the delicate nature of international relations, a trait that Richard and Nazanin Ratcliffe tragically recognise too well. Soon after Ratcliffe was arrested at the airport in Tehran following a visit to her parents with then two-year-old daughter, Johnson wrongly told MPs she had been in Tehran training journalists. The charity worker was on holiday celebrating the Iranian New Year and in fact had never taught journalists nor is she a trained journalist herself. This error saw Ratcliffe face further charges and thus an extended sentence which followed a secret trial.

Despite any ambiguity regarding Johnson’s resignation, what remains clear is that his promise to “leave absolutely no stone unturned” in his and the Foreign Office’s efforts to bring Ratcliffe home to her family, has been sorely broken. Richard has now demanded to continue negotiations with the Foreign Office and newly appointed secretary Jeremy Hunt, stating that “The question is: has the foreign secretary given up on his promise to bring home Nazanin soon? And more importantly, will Nazanin lose her faith that the foreign secretary is capable of keeping his promise?”

Two years later Ratcliffe has now missed her daughter’s fourth birthday as she continues to serve her five year sentence for spying – as accused by the Iranian authorities. And with that, the campaign to free the innocent Ratcliffe continues to head straight forward while pressure on Hunt and his team will not be relieved, despite the turbulent times facing the U.K. government.

Image: http://freenazanin.com

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