https://arab.news/9kmsm
- Richard Ratcliffe: There remains a little girl growing up without her mother still. I hope not a little girl without a sibling
- UK Foreign Office: We have consistently urged Iran to make Nazanin鈥檚 furlough permanent so she can return to her family in the UK
LONDON: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian national imprisoned by Tehran on charges of espionage, is running out of time if she is to have another child, according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who has appealed to Iran鈥檚 Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to release her on compassionate grounds.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, has been incarcerated in Evin Prison, north of Tehran, since her arrest at the city鈥檚 airport in 2016, during which time she has allegedly been denied access to medical treatment.
She has one child, her 6-year-old daughter Gabriella, who was with her when she was arrested and was repatriated to the UK last year.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released on temporary furlough to stay with her parents in Tehran as part of wider efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19 in Iran鈥檚 prisons earlier this year, where she has since undergone a series of private medical tests on the recommendation of a former cellmate who had worked as a doctor.
Ratcliffe said the results of his wife鈥檚 tests showed she had a less than 15 percent chance of conceiving another child.
鈥淭he discovery left her devastated. She spent the day crying looking at pictures of Gabriella,鈥� Ratcliffe said. 鈥淪he reflected, 鈥業 always used to tell myself in Evin that they can鈥檛 take my future away. But now they have鈥�.鈥�
He appealed to Zarif for his wife鈥檚 release, saying: 鈥淗er hostage experience risks having a permanent legacy for our whole family. It is one thing to recover from losing over four years of your life to someone else鈥檚 fights, but it will be quite a different recovery journey for us all if it also means we can never have another baby.鈥�
Ratcliffe added: 鈥淚t is time to end this. Quite literally every month counts. There remains a little girl growing up without her mother still. I hope not a little girl without a sibling. This has been cruel enough.鈥�
Zaghari-Ratcliffe supposedly qualifies for permanent release under the terms of an amnesty for 3,000 prisoners to mark the end of Ramadan in May, declared by Iran鈥檚 Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
But her appeal for clemency has been postponed, with fears that it will only be raised when a hearing in a debt case between the UK and Iran over the canceled sale of tanks in the 1970s begins in November. Zaghari-Ratcliffe鈥檚 imprisonment has been linked to the dispute.
Iranian prosecutors, meanwhile, have warned that a second case, linked to comments made by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary about her being in Iran to train journalists, could be brought against her in the future. Those allegations could see a further sentence of five years were she to be convicted.
The UK Foreign Office said in a statement: 鈥淲e have consistently urged Iran to make Nazanin鈥檚 furlough permanent so she can return to her family in the UK.
鈥淲e will continue to do everything we can to help secure the release of all UK dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran.鈥�