Ex-hostage in Iran, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe attacks the slowness of London
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at a press conference hosted by MP Tulip Siddiq following his release from detention in Iran, in London, Monday, March 21, 2022. AP - Victoria Jones
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
In his first press conference since his return from Iran on Wednesday, the Iranian-British Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe criticized this Monday March 21, 2022 the slowness of the London government in the process of his release.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, Richard, gives thanks, jokes... The former hostage expresses her gratitude to those who supported her, excluding the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as our correspondent in London relates
,
Emeline Wine
.
“
I have seen five foreign ministers pass in six years.
It was going to end up falling on one of them
,
”
says Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
“ I've been
told so many times
,
'Oh, we're going to take you home', without it happening.
What is happening today should have happened six years ago.
»
►Also read: The family of one of the two Iranian-British released claims to have paid 33,000 euros
The Iranian-Briton, mother of an eight-year-old girl, avoids questions about her detention.
Arrested in 2016, during a stay in Tehran where she came to visit her family, the employee of the philanthropic foundation Thomson-Reuters had been accused of "conspiracy" to overthrow the Islamic Republic, and sentenced to five years in prison. jail.
In March 2020, she was placed under house arrest in Tehran, under the control of an electronic bracelet.
The case takes a turn in 2021: at the end of her sentence, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is suddenly sentenced to an additional year of detention, the Iranian justice affirming that she would have participated in 2009 in a demonstration in front of the Iranian embassy. in London.
Now free since March 16, 2022, she prefers to focus on reuniting with her family.
“
I've had a black hole in my heart all these years.
I decided to leave it on the plane that brought me back.
I'm not going to live the rest of my life with this resentment.
»
► To read also: London describes as "torture" the treatment inflicted by Tehran on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Morad Tahbaz, absent from the reunion
Over the happiness of the Iranian-British, hovers the absence of Morad Tahbaz, the last Briton detained in Iran.
The 60-year-old was arrested alongside other environmental activists in January 2018 and sentenced to ten years in prison for "conspiracy with America".
“The
sense of freedom will never be complete until all of us who are unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families
,
”
says Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
“
Morad, all dual nationals, political prisoners.
[…] There are so many other people whose names we don't know who are suffering in prison in Iran, so I think justice in Iran is meaningless because in the worst case you have a unfair trial and if you are lucky you come across a semi-fair judge
,” she adds.
Present, Roxanne Tahbaz, the daughter of Morad Tahbaz, challenges British diplomacy on the absence of her father: "
We have always been assured that my father would be included in any agreement that would be made to free all the hostages
", denounces Roxanne Tahbaz .
“
We are absolutely devastated, knowing that was not the case.
»
According to the British Foreign Office, he was transferred from Evin prison to a residential area in Tehran.
“
We continue to press the Iranian authorities at the highest level to allow him to return home immediately as the Iranian government has pledged to do
,” British diplomacy said.
Morad Tahbaz, who is said to have started a hunger strike according to his sister, is also suffering from cancer, has contracted Covid-19 twice and has lost “
40 kilos
” since his imprisonment in early 2018.
►Also read: Nizar Zakka, former detainee in Iran: "No one should experience what I have experienced"
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