The NGO Amnesty International described Wednesday June 1 as “hostage taking» the six-year detention in Iran of the Iranian-British Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, released in March, calling on the British authorities to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute the Iranian officials.
Read alsoIran: Four dead and seven injured in hostage-taking
“The Iranian authorities deliberately and brazenly deprived Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe of his liberty. They used spurious national security charges and sham legal proceedings against her in a bid to pressure the UK government to settle its debts“, denounced Diana Eltahawy, deputy director of Amnesty for the Middle East and North Africa. “The kidnapping of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe must not go unpunished“, she added in a press release. She urged the UK to “investigate Iranian officials suspected of being responsible for this crime” and, “where sufficient evidence exists“, at “request their extradition» and to «pursue them“.
An old debt of 394 million pounds
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned to the United Kingdom in mid-March after spending six years in detention in Iran, accused in particular of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic, which this employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation has always denied. She had been released with another binational, Anoosheh Ashoori, after London settled an old debt of 394 million pounds (about 463 million euros) owed to Iran.
Read alsoIran death toll rises to 34 after building collapse
Amnesty International denounced the “climate of impunityallowing the Iranian authorities to use dual nationals and foreign nationals as “money change“. In May, the NGO estimated that the Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, sentenced to death for espionage, was also taken intohostage» and served as «pawnfor Tehran, which is seeking to exchange him for two Iranian executives in Belgium and Sweden. More than a dozen Westerners, mostly dual nationals, are currently detained in Iran, which is suspected of wanting to cash them in exchange for concessions from the West.