Iran claims UK ‘will pay £400,000,000’ to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

The UK government has played down the claims by Iranian state television.

The UK is set to buy Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s freedom by paying £400 million to Tehran, Iranian state television claimed on Sunday.

They quoted an anonymous official, who suggested the British government will provide the cash in exchange for the Iranian-British woman’s return. However, UK officials and her husband have played down the report.

It comes after Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was handed a new jail sentence after serving five years – sparking outcry in the UK.

UK officials were pointing out that Iran has made similar claims before, without her having been released, and that the Government’s position has not changed.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We continue to explore options to resolve
this 40-year-old case and will not comment further as legal discussions are
ongoing.’

The new sentence came amid negotiations as Tehran sought hundreds of millions of pounds from the UK over a decades-old arms deal.

The ongoing dispute has soured relations between the UK and Iran, with many international observers suggesting the mother-of-one has been treated unfairly.

Richard Ratcliffe said he and his family ‘have heard nothing’ about a deal to secure her release.

While employed at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency, his wife was taken into custody at Tehran airport in April 2016 as she was returning home to Britain after visiting family with her daughter.

She was convicted of plotting the overthrow of Iran’s government, a charge that she, her supporters and rights groups deny.

The latest sentence was for charges of spreading ‘propaganda against the system’ for participating in a protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009.

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family had ‘heard nothing’ to confirm reports she may be released.

She told Sky News that the family were caught ‘off guard’ by the reports and added: ‘What I do know is that the ambassador in Tehran went to visit Nazanin this morning at her house, but they didn’t mention anything about the deal.

‘The discussions were about coronavirus and whether Nazanin would receive the vaccine, which she has been asking for.

‘So there was no mention of any negotiation, nothing about paying the debt, so it really came as a huge surprise to me and to Nazanin’s family.’

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency MP for Hampstead and Kilburn also tweeted: ‘It was however welcome to hear Dominic Raab refer to her torture this morning on Marr. I hope the Government is doing all it can to get the hostages home.’

Earlier on Sunday, the Foreign Secretary had suggested that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held a hostage by Iran in treatment that amounts to ‘torture’.

Asked if she is being held hostage, he told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: ‘I think it’s very difficult to argue against that characterisation.

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‘It is clear that she is subjected to a cat and mouse game that the Iranians, or certainly part of the Iranian system, engage with and they try and use her for leverage on the UK.’

Asked about the debt the UK owes Tehran over tanks, Mr Raab said: ‘It’s not solely about that.

‘That is not actually the thing that’s holding us up at the moment, it’s the wider context as we come up to the Iranian presidential elections and the wider elections on the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) which, inevitably from the Iranian perspective, the two are considered in tandem.

‘Nazanin is held unlawfully in my view as a matter of international law, I think she’s being treated in the most abusive, tortuous way, I think it amounts to torture the way she’s being treated.’

Iranian state TV reported that deals have been reached to release prisoners with Western ties held in Iran.

The official also said a deal with the US will see a prisoner swap in exchange for the release of £5 billion in frozen Iranian funds.

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