Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband calls on government to attend her second trial in Iran

The British government needs to do more to help Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her husband said on Wednesday, the day after an Iranian court reopened a second court case against the detained British-Iranian woman.

“We have been warning the government of the need to protect Nazanin and the others much more publicly, or this ordeal would spiral more,” Richard Ratcliffe said in a statement calling on UK officials to insist on attending her second trial in Tehran on Sunday.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be tried by a judge known for hearing other politically charged cases and sentencing Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian to prison.

A dual-nationality project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in April 2016 trying to leave Iran with her young daughter after visiting family.

Her family and employer deny the charges of sedition against her. Mr Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that her detention is being used as leverage to force the UK to pay a debt arising from the non-performance of a 1970s weapons deal.

When the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979, Britain did not deliver 1,500 Chieftain tanks previously paid for, nor return the money o the new Islamic republic .

International arbitration that concluded in 2009 ruled that the UK owed the debt, thought to be worth about £400m.

After serving most of her five-year sentence, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was temporarily released from Evin Prison prison in March amid the coronavirus outbreak. She is required to wear an ankle tag and remain within 300 metres of her parent’s home in Iran.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was due for release in March 2021 but now faces the prospect of further prison time.

“There is only so much abuse one person can take,” said Mr Ratcliffe, arguing his wife is being held hostage by Iran. “Nazanin was asking today has she not had her share?”

The government must take action to send a message to Iran, he said. “The government needs to think about who will be taken next, how soft diplomacy stops the spread of state hostage taking?”