The Iranian government has made claims via state television that the United Kingdom is expected to pay Tehran £400 million to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian prisoner in Iran.
According to Metro News UK, the claim quoted an anonymous official, who suggested the British government will provide the money for the woman’s return. However, UK officials and her husband have denied the claims.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is an aid worker with Thomson Reuters Foundation, who was arrested over allegations of a plot to overthrow the Iranian Government.
She was taken to custody in 2016 at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport in 2016, after a visit with her husband and daughter to see her family in the country. She was then sentenced to five years in prison.
While her full sentence ended in March 2021, she was handed another year which will be carried out under house arrest, away from her husband and child. In addition to her sentence, she is also banned from leaving the country for a year on charges of ‘propaganda activities against the regime.”
Analysts say the arrest and imprisonment is an event in the larger context of a 40-year-old conflict, in an arms deal between the UK and Iran.
Denying claims of the Iranian government, Sadiq Tulip, member of Parliament for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency, Hampstead and Kilburn tweeted, “I am aware there are news reports circulating about the debt being paid to #FreeNazanin. I have spoken to her family and they have heard nothing confirming any of these rumours.”
Iranian government continues to face backlash with the imprisonment of Nazinin.
Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen, said the move was “further proof of the incredible cruelty of the Iranian regime.”
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in response to the government’s actions, said in a statement:
“This is a totally inhumane and wholly unjustified decision. We continue to call on Iran to release Nazanin immediately so she can return to her family in the UK.”