Displaying items by tag: Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe

On Christmas Eve British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert started an open-ended hunger strike in protest at being sentenced to ten years on espionage charges. She wants, at the very least, to be moved from solitary confinement, where she has been since October 2018. On 30 December British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she would go on hunger strike in solidarity with Kylie. Just before Christmas, Kylie wrote to the Australian prime minister, pleading for ministers to do more to secure her release. A third dual national, Fariba Adelkhah, is also on hunger strike. The French government has summoned the Iranian ambassador over her detention. A government spokesman rejected the publicity they are receiving, saying Iran would not submit to political games or propaganda. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and many other imprisoned dual nationals in Tehran believe they are political hostages.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British lecturer in Islamic studies at Melbourne University, was arrested last September, tried, and imprisoned for ten years for espionage. She is in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison, with no contact from family or friends. The British and Australian governments have kept the identity of their arrested citizens out of the public domain, believing diplomatic efforts for release would be more effective if conducted behind closed doors. Others argue that publicity will generate international, community and political support, providing impetus for release negotiations. Meanwhile, Jolie King, a British-Australian woman and Cambridge University honours graduate in Middle Eastern studies, and her Australian boyfriend Mark Firkin were arrested ten weeks ago near Tehran for flying a drone near military installations. They were shooting pictures for a travel blog of their overland journey from Perth to London. Also, please continue praying for Nazanin Ratcliffe.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s court case, at which she was expected to have her jail sentence extended, was postponed following the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Iran. Boris Johnson has said he held ‘worthwhile’ meetings in Tehran over the case of the jailed British-Iranian woman, but warned that he did not wish ‘to raise false hopes’ for her release. He believed his messages had been understood by senior Iranian figures, but admitted it was too early to be confident of the outcome, casting doubt on her family’s hopes that she might be released in time for Christmas.