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Posted on Oct 24, 2021 / 10:41 AM CDT
Updated: 10/24/2021 / 11:17 AM CDT
FILE – This Thursday. 23 September 2021 File photo, Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of the incarcerated British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, gives a television interview in Parliament Square in London as he marks the 2,000 days she has been incarcerated in Iran. The husband of British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been incarcerated in Iran for more than five years, has resumed a hunger strike after a court ruled that she must spend another year in prison. (AP Photo / Matt Dunham, File)
LONDON (AP) – The husband of British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than five years, has started a hunger strike again after a court ruled that she would have to spend another year in prison.
Richard Ratcliffe began his fast on Sunday outside the UK Government’s Foreign Office in central London.
He plans to maintain a “permanent vigil” by sleeping in a tent in front of the building’s main entrance to pressure Prime Minister Boris Johnson to obtain the release of his wife and other British-Iranian nationals in custody, Amnesty International said.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe served five years in prison after she was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 and convicted of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.
In May, she was sentenced to another year in prison for spreading “anti-system propaganda” for participating in a 2009 protest outside the Iranian embassy in London – a decision upheld by an appeals court this month. The ruling envisages a one-year travel ban, which means she won’t be able to leave Iran until 2023.
Ratcliffe went on a 15-day hunger strike in front of the Iranian embassy two years ago, a move he attributes to the release of her 7-year-old daughter Gabriella.
“We are now giving the UK Government the same treatment. In truth, I never expected to have to go on hunger strikes twice. It’s not a normal act, ”Ratcliffe said in his petition change.org.
He said Iran remains the “main molester” in Nazanin’s case, but “Britain is failing us too”.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the Nazanin case could have been resolved many months ago – without any other diplomatic agendas. The Prime Minister must take responsibility for this. ”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news agency’s not-for-profit arm, and was arrested when she returned to the UK after visiting her family. Human rights groups accuse Iran of holding dual citizenship as a bargaining chip for money or influence in negotiations with the West, which Tehran denies.
Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, so detainees like Zaghari-Ratcliffe cannot receive consular assistance.
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