Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s First Press Conference in Britain: Justice Has No Meaning in Iran; I Was Released in Exchange for Money
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe held a press conference in London on Monday, April 20, 2022.
Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who had been imprisoned in Iran for more than five years, was released on Thursday along with Anoosheh Ashoori, another Iranian-British prisoner, and returned to Britain.
Tulip Siddiq, the representative of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency, expressed her delight at the start of this press conference held in one of the halls of the British Parliament regarding Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release and called for investigations into what happened to Nazanin and the reasons for the delay in her release.
Following Ms. Siddiq, Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, expressed his happiness about his wife’s release while thanking her and the media for covering news related to Nazanin.
Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe then thanked everyone who helped her return to Britain, including her lawyer in Iran as well as her husband and daughter.
According to her, the meaning of freedom is only complete when all dual-national prisoners in Iran, including Morad Tahbaz, can reunite with their families.
She added that justice has no meaning in Iran and she should not have been imprisoned for six years.
Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, referring to the difficult period of living in Iran, said her return to Britain was also extremely difficult.
In another part of her remarks, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said there are many other prisoners in Iran who have been imprisoned for longer periods than her and nobody even knows their names.
Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe added that the fate of dual-national prisoners should not be tied to a political agreement.
Roxsan Tahbaz, daughter of Morad Tahbaz, also called on Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, and Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, to make efforts for her father’s release and return to Britain.
Ms. Tahbaz said she has no information about the status of negotiations regarding her father, and added that she had been told Mr. Tahbaz would be on unlimited leave and her mother’s travel ban would also be lifted.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a 43-year-old Iranian-British citizen who was detained while leaving Iran in 2016 and subsequently faced security charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was temporarily released from prison in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, but a year later the court sentenced her to another punishment.
She, along with Anoosheh Ashoori, another Iranian-British prisoner who had been held in Iran for years, left Iran on Wednesday, March 16, following a one-day visit by a British delegation to Tehran the previous day, and entered British territory in the early hours of Thursday, March 17.
Source: Voice of America
