Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has used the first anniversary of her release from prison in Iran to press for sanctions against 10 Iranian officials.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her husband Richard have been trying to balance a normal life with daughter Gabriella with campaigning for policy changes in the UK.
British-Iranians Morad Tahbaz and Mehran Raoof are known to still be held in Iranian jails, while another dual citizen Ali Reza Akbari was executed this year.
“You can be free living in a free world, but not be free in your mind,” Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe said.
A Channel 4 film, being aired on Thursday, highlights some of the anger, desperation and fear she felt while behind bars.
Her legal advisers, Redress, have submitted the names of 10 Iranian officials asking that they be subject to human rights sanctions over state hostage-taking, The Guardian reported.
Foreign Office minister David Rutley this week said the UK did not believe a state could be a hostage taker and used the term “arbitrary detention for diplomatic leverage”.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe went from being from a wife and mother living in London to a household name in 2016 when she was detained in Iran while on a visit to see her parents in Tehran.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe reunited with her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and their daughter, Gabriella, after being held for six years in Iran. Photo: @TulipSiddiq via Twitter -
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, centre, with their families. Photo: @lilika49 via Twitter -
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter at RAF Brize Norton airbase. EPA -
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella, husband Richard and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss at RAF Brize Norton. EPA -
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released in March 2022. Reuters -
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori with the cabin crew in Brize Norton. Reuters -
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori as their plane flies over London. Reuters -
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe sits in a plane en route to London after taking off from Teheran. Reuters -
Mr Ashoori gestures as he sits in the plane heading to London. Reuters -
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in Tehran in April 2016 as she prepared to fly back to the UK, having taken her daughter Gabriella to see relatives. AFP -
She was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Tehran’s Evin Prison and one under house arrest. Photo: Tulip Siddiq / Twitter -
Richard Ratcliffe with daughter Gabriella outside their house in London on Wednesday. AFP -
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori arrive in Oman en route to the UK. Photo: @badralbusaidi / Twitter -
Mr Ratcliffe went on a hunger strike in October 2021 in protest at the UK government’s failure to secure his wife's release. AFP -
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe boards a plane as she prepares to leave Tehran. Reuters -
Mr Ratcliffe told the media that the family plan to find solace elsewhere for a few days. Reuters -
Gabriella was not yet two when her mother was arrested. Photo: Tulip Siddiq / Twitter
Separated from her daughter Gabriella, a toddler at the time, and subjected to vigorous interrogation by authorities, the UK-Iranian was later sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly plotting to overthrow the regime.
She has always denied the charge.
Mr Ratcliffe said he was worried the British government was less interested in sanctions for cases such as theirs since his wife has been released.
“One year on, I do find it upsetting how the government won’t say how many Brits are currently held hostage by Iran, that they tried to imply to parliament this week that states do not take hostages, and that since Nazanin’s case, they have not recognised the torture of any British citizen by a foreign government," he said.
“They have also stripped torture figures from their annual human rights report.
“It is staggering but also depressing that the issue of arbitrary detention for leverage has been dropped from the new integrated review in favour of prioritising medium powers that do not like discussions around human rights.
“I fear there is a recalibration of the protections of a British passport unfolding before our eyes," he added. "The anniversary of Nazanin’s release is a good day to start sending a clear message — that the UK will protect its citizens and not just wring its hands.”
The Foreign Office said: “The UK will never accept our nationals being used as political leverage and we continue to press Iran to end this abhorrent practice.
“Since October we have announced six packages of human rights sanctions, including on Iran’s morality police, Iran’s prosecutor general and the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] in its entirety. We do not speculate on future designations.”
