SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 20 April 2024, Saturday |

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Husband of jailed Iranian-British on hunger strike

The husband of UK charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained for more than five years in Iran, has went on a hunger strike again after a court decided she has to spend another year in prison.

Richard Ratcliffe started his fast on Sunday outside the British government’s Foreign Office in central London.

He plans to maintain a “constant vigil” by sleeping in a tent outside the building’s main entrance to pressure Prime Minister Boris Johnson to secure the release of his wife and other detained dual British-Iranian nationals, Amnesty International said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe served five years in prison after being taken into custody at Tehran’s airport in April 2016 and convicted of plotting the overthrow of Iran’s government, a charge that she, her supporters and rights groups deny.

In May, she was sentenced to an additional year in prison on charges of spreading “propaganda against the system” for having participated in a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009 — a decision upheld this month by an appeals court. The verdict includes a one-year travel ban, meaning she wouldn’t be able to leave Iran until 2023.

    Source:
  • Associated Press