Richard Ratcliffe bid farewell to his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at the Gatwick Airport departure gate more than 1,800 days ago, solely concerned about how their baby daughter would deal with the long voyage to Tehran.
Gabriella had already seen her Iranian grandparents three times, thanks to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Richard had no reason to believe he wouldn’t be back at the airport to pick them up a fortnight later. He has not seen his wife in person since then.
As she prepared to go home, Nazanin was detained by members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard at Tehran Airport.
Who Is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe?
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a dual citizen of Iran and the United Kingdom who has been arrested in Iran since 3 April 2016. She was sentenced to five years in jail in early September 2016 after being found guilty of “plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.”
During the COVID-19 epidemic in Iran in March 2020, she was briefly freed while being watched.
In October 2017, Tehran’s prosecutor general said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was being imprisoned for “running a BBC Persian online journalism school aimed at recruiting and training people to promote propaganda against Iran.”
Her previous term expired on March 7, 2021, but she was slated to face a new set of charges on March 14.
On April 26th, she was convicted guilty of anti-government propaganda and sentenced to one year in jail. Her appeal was dismissed by an Iranian court on October 16th.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has consistently rejected the spying allegations, and her husband claims that his wife was “incarcerated as leverage for a debt due by the UK over its failure to supply tanks to Iran in 1979.”
Richard Ratcliffe Wife & Family
Talking about Richard Ratcliffe’s wife and family, he is married to Nazanin and has a daughter named Gabriella as per the news coverage of BBC.
Nazanin Zaghari grew up in Tehran and went to the University of Tehran to study English literature before becoming an English teacher.
She worked as a translator for the Japan International Cooperation Agency in the aftermath of the 2003 Bam earthquake.
She later worked for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before becoming a communications officer at the World Health Organization.
Does Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Have A Facebook Account?
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe does not seem to have a Facebook profile as of now, however, several accounts demanding her freedom can be found.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran, has got her British passport restored, according to Tulip Siddiq, her UK MP.
Ms Siddiq claims she has learned that she is being held in Tehran by a British negotiation team.
“I am extremely glad to report that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back,” the Hampstead and Kilburn MP tweeted.