Nazanin case may make Britain search weak, says Jeremy Hunt
29 December, 2020
Former UK overseas secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that Britain “is starting to look weak” above its failure to safeguard its citizens imprisoned by Iran.
Nearly 2 yrs after Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case became a diplomatic dispute between the UK and Iran, Britain has failed to show any consequences for her imprisonment, Mr Hunt said.
“We must show the world that if you imprison a Uk citizen on trumped-up expenses you will pay a very heavy selling price, because Britain is a significant player in the world stage and intends to stay one,” he wrote in THE DAYS today.
“Allowing ourselves to get pushed around such as this right now of post-Brexit renewal sends the contrary signal.”
Mr Hunt also referred to a historical, £400 million ($538.8m) credit debt that the UK federal government owes Iran, suggesting that sanctions about Tehran are zero barrier to its repayment.
He said the amount of money could possibly be repaid in medicine or humanitarian supplies.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, a good British-Iranian mother of 1 from Hampstead found in north London, was arrested found in Iran in 2016 while on a journey to visit family.
She was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of trying to topple the regime, which she denies.
Last year she became the first British citizen in greater than a century to get diplomatic protection, which recognises her as “predominantly British” and raises her case under international law.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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