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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Husband begins new hunger strike in London - BBC News
Oct 24, 2021 2 mins, 7 secs

The husband of the detained British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is beginning a hunger strike in Whitehall, demanding the government do more to secure her release.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in Iran for five years on spying charges, recently lost her appeal against a second prison sentence.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 43-year-old mother-of-one from London, has been detained in Iran since 2016 and has not seen her daughter for two years.

Mr Ratcliffe said it was only a matter of time before she would be summoned back to jail.

It is the second time Mr Ratcliffe has used the tactic, after a 15-day hunger strike outside the Iranian embassy in London in 2019.

"Two years ago I went on hunger strike in front of the Iranian embassy, on the eve of Boris Johnson taking over as prime minister," said Mr Ratcliffe in a statement online.

Mr Ratcliffe said he was making four demands from Mr Johnson, including recognising Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a hostage, and for the UK to push for an end to hostage-taking when negotiating the Iran nuclear deal.

He spoke to the new Foreign Secretary Liz Truss earlier this month, but said he was told the government's response was to do nothing yet until Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was returned to prison.

"It breaks my heart that my constituent Richard Ratcliffe has once again been forced to go on hunger strike to protest against the government's failure to free Nazanin," she said.

It's time for the government to listen to the demands of Nazanin's family, including paying the debt we owe to Iran, and finally bring her home.".

"Like Richard, we've grown tired of hearing ministers saying they're 'doing all they can' for Nazanin and other arbitrarily-detained Britons in Iran - it doesn't look like that to us, and it certainly hasn't produced results," said Sacha Deshmukh.

He demanded the government sets out a strategy for getting Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe home, and added: "We call on Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and other ministers to take the time to come out of their offices to visit Richard at his tent?

On Sunday, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: "Iran's decision to proceed with these baseless charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is an appalling continuation of the cruel ordeal she is going through?

"Instead of threatening to return Nazanin to prison, Iran must release her permanently so she can return home?

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