‘How many Foreign Secretaries should it take?’
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has slammed the UK government for taking six years to deliver her freedom.
“It should have happened six years ago,” she told a press conference on Monday morning – having returned from a six-year detention in Iran on Thursday.
“I have seen five foreign secretaries over six years,” she said. “That is unprecedented”.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was joined by her husband, Richard, for a statement made at Portcullis House adjacent to the houses of parliament.
This is the first time the family have spoken to the press together since her release.
The family’s MP, Tulip Siddiq, first paid tribute to her constituents – who she described as an an ordinary family who, when thrust into extraordinary circumstances, “rose to the challenge”.
It was a “family who never lost hope,” she said, praising their daughter, Gabriella, who was known to be a “brave soul”.
Richard said he was proud of his wife and “proud we get to start a new chapter and get to be a normal family again.”
He thanked Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who promised to return Zaghari-Ratcliffe to the UK last year, joking he hadn’t always been polite in public about the conservative government.
The 43-year-old landed back in Britain last week after the UK settled a £400m military equipment debt owed to Iran since the 1970s.
Until Thursday, Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been detained in Tehran on security charges, having been accused of plotting to overthrow the government by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 2016.
She was arrested at Imam Khomeini airport with her daughter Gabriella, during a visit to her Iranian parents.
Truss said negotiations had continued up until departure, with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release uncertain until take-off.
She added that the £400m debt had been settled “in parallel” and “in full compliance with UK and international sanctions and all legal obligations”.
Ahead of the press conference, the couple attended a private meeting with Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle, accompanied by their local MP, Siddiq, who has long campaigned for her safe return.
Speaking on Wednesday in the house of commons, Siddiq gave an emotional tribute to the family of Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
“I think he’s set the bar for husbands around the world,” she said – paying service to Richard Ratcliffe, who campaigned tirelessly for his wife’s release over the past six years.
"I think he's set the bar for husbands around the world."
An emotional @tulipsiddiq pays tribute to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family after their six year long campaign for her release. pic.twitter.com/Y2S5uZNztz
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) March 16, 2022
Related links:
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on her way home to UK after six years in detention in Iran
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: husband ends hunger strike after promise to detained wife
- UK to pay 400m to Iran to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe jailed for another year in Iran over propaganda activities
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