LONDON – Former Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said on Monday that cleaning her young daughter’s hair was one of her greatest joys in returning home after nearly six years in prison, and called on all of Iran’s remaining hostages to unite their families. .
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual British-Iranian citizen who went to Tehran in 2016 to visit her parents when her daughter was a young child, was released last week after Britain paid off a decade-old debt to Iran. She said she would be grateful to be free, but her journey would not be finished until the others returned home. In particular, she cites the case of Morad Tahbaz, a UK-born environmentalist who was left out of the deal that secured her freedom.
“I believe the meaning of freedom will never be complete until a time when all of us unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe told a news conference following Tahbaz’s speech. Daughter included.
Zaghari Ratcliffe and retired civil engineer Anoosheh Ashoori were released on Wednesday as part of efforts by Britain, the United States and other countries to secure the freedom of dozens of dual citizens who they say were being held in trumped-up in Iran Costs of expressing concessions from Western nations. . Iran, which does not recognize dual citizenship, has accused prisoners of crimes such as espionage and sentenced them to long prison terms under harsh conditions.
The breakthrough came as world leaders tried to negotiate Iran’s return to the United States into an international treaty limiting Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program – talks complicated by the prisoner question.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe said on Monday that people like her should not be used as a peasant in international disputes. She also criticized the UK government, and the five foreign ministers who led British foreign policy during her captivity, to win her release sooner.
“I got told many, many times, ‘Oh, we’ll get you home.’ ‘But that never happened,’ she said. “What happened now should have happened six years ago.”
Prior to the release of Zaghari Ratcliffe, the British government agreed to pay off a debt of almost 400 million pounds, stemming from an arms deal that was annulled after the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979. asked a House of Commons committee to investigate why it took so long to pay off the debt and bring UK citizens home.
When Zaghari Ratcliffe and Ashoori were released, the British government said it had also negotiated Tahbaz’s release in the process, although he would remain in Iran while further details were worked out. Tahbaz’s case is complicated by the fact that he has US citizenship as well as British and Iranian.
His lawyer in Iran, Hojjat Kermani, said on Monday that Tahbaz had never been released on holiday. Instead, he was only allowed to see his family in Tehran for 48 hours under the supervision of armed guards, after which he was taken back to prison.
In another twist, Tahbaz was taken to a hotel on Sunday but returned to Evin Prison on Monday.
“From the beginning, we were always assured by (the State Department) that my father would be involved in every deal to free all the hostages, so we are really devastated now to know that this was not the case.” said his daughter, Roxanne Tahbaz.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe declined to discuss any details about her time in captivity, refusing to answer questions about how she found the strength to last through months of solitary confinement or whether it showed acts of kindness by her prison guards.
She was more comfortable talking about the excitement she felt about getting off the plane she reunited with her husband and 7-year-old daughter early Thursday morning.
“That moment was precious,” she said. “I waited so long for that moment, and I was overwhelmed, especially to get to know Gabriella and Richard after such a long time.”
During the press conference, Zaghari-Ratcliffe kept looking at the audience and laughing as she made eye contact with Gabriella. Richard would sometimes reach for her hand. The man, who has been tirelessly campaigning to bring her home, has vowed to return from public life and heal the family.
Not that this will be easy.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe seems to crave normality – the chance for her daughter to fly her hair or take school so she can meet her child’s friends. After the press conference, she said, the family hopes for privacy.
“Gabriella told me one day on the phone that I was in Iran, ‘Mom, you realize you’re very famous – and then it’s me, and then it’s his father,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said, Reporter laughed. “And then I said, ‘It’s not good to be famous because you will not have a normal life.'” And she was like, “Oh, you will not be famous forever. Maximum one week. ‘
“So we’re preparing for a week of fame, then we’ll just have a normal family.”
Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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