The husband of British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said the arrest of the UK’s ambassador to Iran is a “really bad sign for us”. Richard Ratcliffe said the detention of Rob Macaire during anti-government protests in Tehran did not bode well for his wife, who has been held “essentially as a hostage” for almost four years.
He also said US President Donald Trump’s actions have made the situation “much more volatile” but noted “his administration has got Americans home, whereas the UK hasn’t succeeded”.
Mr Ratcliffe told Sky News’ Sophie Ridge show: “The arrest of the ambassador and the attempt to try and turn that into ‘this is a foreign plot, it’s the British organising the protest’ which is what Iranian Press TV has put out, it’s a really bad sign for us.
“Of course we are in the middle of all that because Nazanin is regularly brought out as someone involved in overthrowing the regime and all those fake stories.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker from London, has suffered declining physical and mental health during her detention and suffered panic attacks amid the rising political tensions in recent days.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she vehemently denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government, having been arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to show her baby daughter Gabriella, now aged five, to her parents.
Mr Ratcliffe believes once her sentence concludes the regime will “just add a second sentence at the end, so yes the longer we don’t get out the more likely we are to have many more years to do”.
The long-time campaigner for her freedom said he understands he will have a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson “not next week but the week after”.
Rights groups say her trial was a sham and describe her as a prisoner of conscience, while the Foreign Office says her treatment fails to meet obligations under international law. Mr Ratcliffe says she is being held by the Islamic republic as a diplomatic bargaining chip.