Iran
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe pictured in Tehran following her temporary release on house arrest in March 2020. Photo: Free Nazanin
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The UK summoned the Iranian ambassador on Thursday over the case of British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, held in Tehran since 2016 on charges of plotting to overthrow the Iranian regime.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) summoned Hamid Baeidinejad following news that Zaghari-Ratcliffe will return to court on Monday on propaganda charges, just months before her five-year prison sentence was due to end in the spring.
“We have made it clear to the Iranian ambassador that his country’s treatment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is unjustified and unacceptable, and is causing an enormous amount of distress,” said an FCDO spokesperson.
“Iran is further tarnishing its reputation through its actions towards Nazanin. It is time to end her arbitrary detention and that of the other dual British nationals it is holding,” they added.
RELATED: Iran's jailed dual nationals: pawns in an IRGC power play
Zaghari-Ratcliffe received a court summons from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday, and is due to appear in court on November 2. Released on house arrest with an ankle tag in March, she has been told she will return to Tehran's Evin prison following the hearing, according to her husband.
The hearing follows the delay of a court hearing on UK debt to Iran over arms sales before the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
The debt has been connected to the charity worker’s detention, acknowledged by UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in September.
In September, Tehran demanded the UK take “immediate action” to pay the debt.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the continued detention of the mother-of-one is causing “enormous distress to Nazanin and her family.”
Nazanin’s husband Richard Ratcliffe said the Foreign Secretary had acknowledged his wife’s case as a “game of cat and mouse” in a Tuesday phone call.
“It is imperative that the UK protects Nazanin. I told the Foreign Secretary that I felt the UK is dancing to Iran’s tune, and exposing Nazanin to abuse because of it,” he said in a Wednesday press release, saying Iran is “trolling” the UK over his wife’s case.
“We have openly questioned whether the government knows what they are doing – what is their acceptable level of collateral damage for this decision making,” he added.
Ratcliffe has previously criticized the British government for its response to what he described as “hostage taking” by Iran, targeting dual nationals in particular.
"It took the British government a very long time to acknowledge that there was any abuse of Nazanin's rights, that she was innocent,” he told Rudaw English in August.
The charity worker was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport in April 2016 after visiting her family for the Newroz holiday with her young daughter. She denies all charges brought against her.
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