With Ares Amiri’s Return to Prison, Concerns Grow Over Nazanin Zaghari’s Potential Re-imprisonment

Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Nazanin Zaghari, says he is concerned that with Ares Amiri’s return to prison, his wife may also be re-imprisoned within a few weeks.

According to The Guardian, with Ares Amiri’s re-entry to prison—a former student and employee of the British Council in Iran who was released on furlough on Thursday, April 10, after serving more than two years—concerns have intensified regarding the potential re-imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British dual national prisoner in Iran who was also released on furlough amid the coronavirus outbreak in Iranian prisons.

Ares Amiri, a former student and employee of the British Council who was released on furlough nearly a month ago after serving more than two years, returned to the women’s ward of Evin Prison on Monday, May 5, after his furlough period ended.

Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin Zaghari’s husband, spoke to The Guardian on Tuesday, May 6, following Amiri’s re-imprisonment, referring to returning to prison as no easy matter. He interprets the return of this former British Council student and employee in Iran to prison as a bad sign for Nazanin’s case; an interpretation that, according to him, may lead to the recall of other prisoners as well.

Nazanin Zaghari’s husband also stated that he has requested the British Foreign Office to have the British ambassador in Tehran visit Nazanin Zaghari to show diplomatic support, as a sign that the British government is not afraid to publicly stand by its citizens even in Iran.

Nazanin Zaghari, who was detained about three years ago at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran upon her return to London by Revolutionary Guards along with her young daughter and was sentenced to five years in prison by the court, is among dual-national prisoners in Iran. Prior to Nowruz, she was released on furlough with an electronic ankle bracelet on the condition that she would not venture more than three hundred meters from her parents’ residence.

It is worth noting that other dual-national citizens, including Anousheh Ashouri, an Iranian-British citizen, continue to serve their sentences in Iranian prisons amid the coronavirus outbreak and have not yet been granted furlough.

Mr. Ashouri, on his 66th birthday, sent an audio message from Evin Prison demanding his release, saying: “Today I am spending my 66th birthday as a hostage in a hell called Evin Prison, away from my family and loved ones.”

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned the arbitrary and unlawful detention of American citizens and citizens of other countries, including dual-national Iranians, by the Islamic Republic regime and has called for their immediate and unconditional release.

Source: Voice of America