Ratcliffe slams UK approach to wife’s detention in Iran

Ratcliffe criticized the UK government for not sending a representative to his wife's court hearing. (File/AFP)

• London “hiding behind” her dual nationality to downplay situation
• Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe recently finished 5-year jail term but faces new charges

LONDON: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband has criticized the British government’s handling of his wife’s detention in Tehran, and accused it of “hiding behind” her dual Iranian-British nationality to downplay the situation.
Richard Ratcliffe said London’s approach had allowed “five years of abuse to fester.” His wife’s five-year sentence for spying charges — which she denies — recently drew to an end, but fresh charges were leveled against her on Sunday.
Ratcliffe criticized the UK government for not sending a representative to the court hearing. “The British government — for whatever reason — will not assert Nazanin’s Britishness and they keep on emphasizing that she’s a dual national, which I have to say looks like dog-whistle racism at points,” he told the Evening Standard in a scathing interview.
“The UK hides behind dual nationality and makes Iran’s arguments for it — always insisting that Iran doesn’t recognize dual nationality. It’s frankly irrelevant what Iran recognizes — it’s what the UK is willing to do to protect its citizens,” he added.
“There’s a kind of victim blaming that comes with focusing on her dual nationality, as though it’s her fault that she happens to have a second passport.”
Comparing the UK’s handling of his wife’s detention with how the US approaches similar situations, Ratcliffe said: “They don’t have A-list real Americans and B-list dual national Americans, whereas the UK is very emphatic in emphasizing dual nationality at the point at which it doesn’t need to. It’s gratuitous to a point. There are ways in which it downplays what is going on.” 
He added: “Why are they not every day knocking on the prison door to go and visit Nazanin?”
The UK Foreign Office has said it is applying pressure on Iran for her acquittal, and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused Tehran of deliberately putting her through a “cruel and inhumane ordeal.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are doing all we can to help Nazanin and other dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran. It is unacceptable and unjustifiable that Iran has chosen to continue with this second, wholly arbitrary, case against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. She must be allowed to return to her family in the UK without further delay.”