Tories had five years to free Nazanin; now they can only hope she’ll be released on schedule

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: did Boris Johnson ever give a damn about this UK citizen, wrongly imprisoned in Iran?

What a pathetic defeat for the Conservatives – and for Boris Johnson in particular.

You’ll remember that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was imprisoned by the Iranian authorities on trumped-up charges in 2016 – for five years.

The case was brought to the UK’s Foreign Secretary – at the time, Boris Johnson – in November 2017. And the first thing he did was make the situation worse.

He said Nazanin had been arrested because she had been “teaching journalism”. In fact, that was the reason for her arrest – a reason that she denies (the Iranian authorities related it to activism against the state).

He later tried to claim that his words had not been clear and he had meant even if she had been teaching journalism, that would not have justified her arrest. But this was not true – one of many lies he has spoken on his way to the top.

The Iranian authorities said they would use Johnson’s words against Nazanin, but he refused to apologise for worsening the situation.

Next it was rumoured that Johnson was going to pay Iran £450 million owed to that country but unpaid due to international sanctions, in return for Nazanin’s freedom…

Then it was said that he had put the brakes on that scheme for fear of upsetting US President Trump.

Nazanin went on hunger strike. While she starved, Johnson (now prime minister) was working on his suntan, on the billionaires’ playground island of Mustique.

Now, her prison sentence is due to end on March 7. And what is the UK government saying?

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that he would leave “no stone unturned” in his quest to have Zaghari-Ratcliffe released on time.

How pathetic. How humiliating. And what a let-down for Nazanin’s family, including husband Richard Ratcliffe who placed his hopes in the Tories and had them dashed on the rocks of international diplomacy.

There’s no guarantee that she will be released. The authorities in Iran have threatened to lengthen her sentence, or sentence her on new charges, on several occasions.

That will be an even greater humiliation for the Tories. Or it would be, if they cared.

Nazanin’s family do care. But the politicians probably think their agony of waiting is nobody’s business but their own.

Source: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hopes to be freed ‘within weeks’ as the end of her prison sentence nears

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2 Comments

  1. SteveH January 18, 2021 at 8:16 am - Reply

    Everyone knows that Nazanin’s release is dependent on the UK first paying our debt to Iran so why didn’t either of these very experienced and highly paid journalists interviewers from the BBC and Sky News ask Dominic Raab the blindingly obvious question.

    Why, despite acknowledging that they owe this money, hasn’t the UK government paid their debts to Iran?

  2. Hecuba January 18, 2021 at 12:10 pm - Reply

    Fascist tories doing what fascist tories always do – nothing! Remember Ms. Nazanin is a mere woman and furthermore she is not white and married to a wealthy fascist tory donor! This means any UK female or male citizen who isn’t a fascist tory millionaire and/or a rabid tory donor can expect no help whatsoever if they are falsely imprisoned by another government!

    Furthermore the fascist crooked tories are still refusing to pay the money they owe to the Iranian government!! If a UK peasant refuses to pay their council tax or taxes then the fascist tories immediately take action to recover the money – but a fascist tory government refusing to pay another government – well that’s okay the fascist tories are crooks anyway!

    Raab is another useless corrupt fascist tory and he claims to be Foreign Secretary!

    So message to us female and male peasants is – don’t expect the fascist tory government to do anything if we are wrongly imprisoned by another government! We are all disposable non-humans!

    And remember the fascist tories are corrupt and a callous bunch who have never cared one iota about us peasants!

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