Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, on Monday called on the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to look into Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ordeal
(Picture: Sky News)An MP has demanded a Parliamentary inquiry into the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was freed last week after six years detained in Iran.
Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, on Monday called on the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to look into her ordeal and in particular why Britain’s debt to Tehran for military equipment could not have been settled sooner.
“I feel Nazanin could have been home a long time ago if we had paid the historic debt of £400 million earlier,” Ms Siddiq said.
“Therefore, I feel I owe it to my constituent Nazanin to ask for a review into the handling of her case. I will be writing to Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, to ask for an inquiry into Nazanin’s case and the wider issue of hostage taking by Iran.”
Ms Siddiq said she wanted answers to why previous attempts to negotiate a settlement with Iran for the debt - which related to a collapsed agreement to provide 1500 Chieftain tanks in 1979 - fell through. She added that any inquiry “must also look at the wider issue of Iran’s hostage taking policy”.
“An inquiry must be conducted into the lengthy delay of this debt and the associated return of Nazanin,” Ms Siddiq said.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, arrived back in the UK last Thursday after six years in detention in Iran following Britain’s agreement to settle the £400 million debt with Tehran. The Government has insisted that the settlement of the debt with Iran was separate to the negotiations which freed her along with a second dual British-Iranian national Anoosheh Ashoori, 67.
A third British-Iranian national, Morad Tahbaz, who also has a US passport, was initially released from prison in Iran on furlough but was not allowed to leave the country. The future of Mr Tahbaz, who was born in London, is now shrouded in uncertainty amid reports that he initially returned to prison over the weekend but may have since been moved again to a Tehran hotel.
After spending the past few days in a safe house, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was due to attend a private meeting with Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle at Parliament this morning, accompanied by her husband Richard and Ms Siddiq.
The Labour MP said she was “emotional” after meeting with the British-Iranian charity worker for the first time after six years of campaigning.
She said it was “quite weird” when the pair met in her London constituency yesterday because she had come to know Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s life “so intimately” from speaking to her as she went through her ordeal, but the pair had never previously met in person.
“We knew we were going to meet each other and she had called me to say that I was one of the first people she wanted to see”, Ms Siddiq said.
“So she came to West Hampstead and we hugged each other for ages and we were both quite tearful and it was quite emotional meeting her.”
Meanwhile the sister of Morad Tahbaz said her brother was being used as a “pawn on a chessboard” as she criticised the UK government for failing to secure a deal for his release from Iran.
Tahrane Tahbaz told BBC radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Tahbaz, who has cancer and is now reportedly on hunger strike, was taken back to prison after being released for 48 hours after the announcement that the other two prisoners had been freed.
“He was taken back to prison after 48 hours,” she said. “He wasn’t really on furlough. It seemed more like a visit than a furlough.
“He didn’t have an ankle bracelet put on him. He was with security and, after 48 hours, he was taken back under security - back to the prison.
“We haven’t heard from him since and we have heard through a relative just a few hours ago that he’s been taken from the prison and he’s been taken to an undisclosed location and that he’s gone on hunger strike.”
She added that the situation was very distressing and that his family were “agonised and distraught”.
“He is in despair and we are in despair,” Ms Tahbaz said. “For four years we were led to believe he would be part of the deal. The deal was done, the money was paid and he wasn’t part of the deal. We are worried this will be swept under the rug and everyone gets on with it.”
The Foreign Office said it would keep pushing for Mr Tahbaz’s return home. “We have been in touch with Morad’s family throughout the day and continue to lobby the Iranian authorities at the highest levels to allow him to return home immediately, as the Iranian government committed to doing.”
