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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe pardon decision delayed again as family clings onto hope

Archive photo of Nazanin with her daughter Gabriella: PA
Archive photo of Nazanin with her daughter Gabriella: PA

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces a further delay to find out if she will be permanently freed from jail in Iran and allowed to return to Britain.

The British-Iranian mother, who has been detained in the country since 2016, had hoped for a decision on her clemency bid on Saturday but was told to wait another week.

She was released on furlough from prison on March 17 due to the coronavirus crisis and has been living at her parents’ home in Tehran, wearing a tag.

Her family was hopeful that she might be permanently released in an amnesty for 3,000 prisoners at the end of Ramadan which was announced by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured in May 2020, has been imprisoned in Iran's notorious Evin prison since 2016 (PA)
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured in May 2020, has been imprisoned in Iran's notorious Evin prison since 2016 (PA)

But two weeks after Eid, her husband Richard Ratcliffe told the PA news agency the authorities are “really playing with us at this stage”.

“I worried beforehand that Nazanin’s furlough would just become a new phase of her being a bargaining chip, a way of using us to signal to the UK that there are two paths ahead, a way to keep us hovering permanently between hope and despair,” he said.

“This is no way to keep testing someone after four years of trauma. There is no halfway house in a hostage situation. We remain exposed – and will be until she is home.”

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while travelling with her young daughter, Gabriella, to meet her parents in April 2016.

She was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

Richard Ratcliffe said his wife's fate hangs in the balance (AFP/Getty Images)
Richard Ratcliffe said his wife's fate hangs in the balance (AFP/Getty Images)

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which states that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law.

If she is released, she will be allowed to return to Britain to see her daughter.

But if she is forced to stay indefinitely in Tehran, her family may point to American prisoner Michael White, who was released this week in a prisoner swap after nearly a year of negotiations despite the cool relations between Iran and the US.

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