Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe press conference – ‘Everyone has the right to be free’

During the press conference, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said “I have been a pawn in the hands of two governments over the past six years.”

“I don’t think anybody’s life should be linked to a global agreement. Every human being has the right to be free.”

“My life was linked to something that’s got nothing to do with me. Why do we have to pay a price for that?” she added. 

She says the plight of dual nationals should not be linked to government deals: “Their stories have to be separately dealt with.”

‘It shouldn’t have taken six years’ – Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Zaghari-Ratcliffe says it shouldn’t have taken the government six years to get her released. 

At the press conference in Westminister, she said: “What’s happened now should have happened six years ago. I shouldn’t have been in prison for six years.”

“I have seen five foreign secretaries change over the course of six years,” Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe said. 

“How many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home?

“We all know… how I came home. It should have happened exactly six years ago.”

Before the event, she also met privately with Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

Anoosheh Ashoori – another British-Iranian national was released at the same time, whilst Morad Tahbaz – who has British, Iranian and American citizenship remains in detention in Tehran. 

Hostage-taking – ‘a legal debt is not a ransom’ 

Richard Ratcliffe spoke on the government’s handling of his wife’s case, he said, in regards to the government paying its debt, that those who took Nazanin will be “patting themselves on the back” for what they got and will be “squeezing” the other prisoners for more. 

He acknowledged that it is a challenge for the government and international community to deal with state-hostage taking but the government must “be brave” and “tough.” 

He added there “a legal debt is not a ransom” and there is a “moral hazard” in linking a legal debt to a prison release. 

Who is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe?

Ms Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, is a dual British and Iranian citizen. Before she was arrested she lived in London with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter.

Nazanin worked as a project manager for the charity Thomson Reuters Foundation and was previously employed by BBC Media Action – an international development charity. Her husband Richard is an accountant. 

She was detained whilst visiting Iran with her daughter Gabriella. 

What was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe accused of doing? 

Iranian authorities say Zaghari-Ratcliffe was plotting to topple the government in Tehran – but no official charges were ever made public. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say she was leading a “foreign-linked hostile network”, and sentenced her to five years in prison. 

She says she had been taking her daughter, now six, to visit her parents and celebrate the Iranian new year. 

Thomson Reuters Foundation and BBC Media Action issued statements at the time confirming her trip was a holiday and not work-related. 

For the final year of her prison sentence, she was on parole at her parent’s home in Tehran. But in April 2021 she was sentenced to another year behind bars and was slapped with a one-year travel ban after being found guilty of propaganda against the Iranian government.

She lost an appeal against the second conviction. 

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – timeline 

• Interrogation for the first two months of her imprisonment and kept in solitary confinement – (April – June 2016)
•  Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe sentenced to five years behind bars by the Revolutionary Court – (September 2016)
• Loses final appeals to overturn her sentence – (April 2017) 
• Three-day temporary release and reunited with her daughter – (August 2018) 
• Three-day hunger strike to protest lack of specialist medical treatment – (January 2019) 
• 15-day hunger strike calling for her release – (June 2019) 
• Temporary leave from prison due to Covid, living at her parent’s home in Tehran – (March 2020) 
• Told she will face another trial over a new charge – (Spetemnter 2020)
• Loses appeal against a second jail sentence – (October 2021) 
• Following negotiations around a £400million debt Britain owed Iran, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe released from Iran and returns to UK