The British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been told she can remain out of prison until a decision is made on whether to grant her clemency.
She was due to return to jail on Wednesday after being released on furlough in April but Iranian authorities said she would remain at her parents’ home on a tag pending a long-term decision on her fate. Many other Iranian political prisoners have been sent back to prison after they had been temporarily released during the coronavirus outbreak in the country in March and April.
The number of daily coronavirus deaths has fallen in the past month although a recent drop in new infections has ended with a fortnight-long rise causing concern to health officials.
Lawyers acting for Zaghari-Ratcliffe have been told they must return to see the prosecuting authorities on Saturday to discuss the issue of her clemency.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, described the decision as a small step forward, and urged the Iranian government to make a decision on clemency.
Her lawyers had last week written to the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, asking for him to dispatch the UK ambassador to Iran to see Zaghari-Ratcliffe in what would have been a show of solidarity with her ahead of the decision on her possible return to jail. The Foreign Office rejected the request even though she had been given diplomatic protection by the government.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in jail in 2016, and normally an Iranian prisoner would be released after serving half the sentence. UK diplomats are given no access to British-Iranian dual nationals in jail since Iran does not recognise the status.
Her fate will be inextricably bound up in both a power struggle between the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is likely to see her continued detention as both a useful bargaining tool and sign of Iranian strength in the face of western sanctions.
Iran’s often opaque internal decisions will also be played out against the background of Iranian foreign ministry negotiations with Europe over the future of an Iranian nuclear deal, as well as an outstanding multimillion-pound UK debt to Iran dating from the 1970s.
The UK has resisted paying the debt, saying it claims it is not possible to do so without breaching EU sanctions, but Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s team has long argued that it could be paid, possibly in the form of humanitarian aid. The Ministry of Defence fears the political reaction from Washington if the debt were paid to the regime.
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Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s daughter, Gabriella, was allowed to fly to London to be with her father and she is now in school in London. She speaks daily to her mother by Skype. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has spoken of having two bags packed in the hall of her mother’s house: one for her return to Evin prison in Tehran, and the other for a flight back to London.
The Labour MP Tulip Siddiq tweeted on Wednesday: “Nazanin’s furlough has been extended and she is NOT going back to prison today.” She said the uncertainty was causing Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family “unimaginable stress,”, adding: “The government must step up efforts to make sure her furlough is made permanent.”
source https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/may/20/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-stay-out-of-prison-until-iran-makes-decision-on-fate
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