Magnitsky Human Rights Prize Awarded to Nazanin Zaghari; Gabriela Reads Her Mother's Message

The Magnitsky Human Rights Award, titled "Courage Under Fire," was awarded to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual national prisoner in Iran, at a ceremony in London on Thursday.

At the ceremony, Gabriella, the daughter of Nazanin Zaghari and Richard Ratcliffe, read her mother's message to the ceremony.

Nazanin Zaghari, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 at the end of a trip to visit her family in Iran, on charges of "espionage" and sentenced to five years in prison.

A few months ago, despite the end of this sentence, the Iranian government once again opened a new case and sentenced Ms. Zaghari to prison, and Iranian officials have cited the issue of paying the British debt as the main factor in ending this case.

In Nazanin Zaghari's message to the ceremony, which Gabriella read, she said, "Thank you for this award. It means a lot to me and my cellmates who are still in Evin Prison that we have not been forgotten."

Ms. Zaghari added, "It melts my heart to see my daughter, now old enough to receive this award and read these words."

"Maybe one day we will live in a world where we don't need to fight for our freedom," he said. "But thank you all for being with us at a time when we still need to fight."

Nazanin Zaghari has always denied all the charges against her, and her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has repeatedly described her imprisonment as a "hostage" by the Iranian government over the case of Britain's £400 million debt to Iran.

Richard Ratcliffe also said in a speech before the awards ceremony: "Nazanin was very happy to hear the news of receiving this award, for herself and also for the other detainees in Iran that you have not heard about."

Richard Ratcliffe further stated that awarding the Magnitsky Human Rights Prize to Nazanin is heartening, given our understanding of the role that the Magnitsky Act sanctions can play in challenging Iran's state-sponsored hostage-taking.

He added, "All members of our family are proud of this award."

Sergei Magnitsky was an accountant who was imprisoned after exposing corruption by Russian officials and died suspiciously in prison less than a year later, in 2009.

In 2012, the US government and Congress passed a law called the Magnitsky Act, imposing sanctions on human rights violators in Russia.

Source: Radio Farda