Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

THE government’s failings delayed freeing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK nationals held hostage in Iran, a damning report has found.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who lives in West Hampstead, spent nearly six years in prison following her arrest on spurious spying charges while visiting family in Iran in 2016. 

An inquiry by the The Foreign Affairs Committee released on April 4 looked at the Foreign Office’s handling of state hostage diplomacy. 

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment was linked to a long-standing debt between Iran and the UK. 

The report said: “There is compelling evidence that the repayment of the International Military Services debt became a precondition for the release of UK nationals from Iran. The failure to pay it sooner was highly regrettable and almost certainly adversely affected the length of detentions by limiting diplomatic options for negotiating an earlier release and brought significant suffering.”

It also found that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK nationals held hostage “have been let down by information shared by ministers – actions which were counterproductive and may have contributed to less favourable conditions for an earlier release”.

“Despite the departmental culture of extreme caution in the sharing of information on politically sensitive detentions, ministerial communication has been plagued by inconsistency and clumsiness,” it said.

One example is when then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee on November 1 2017 and incorrectly said that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “teaching people journalism” when she was in Iran.

The inquiry said: “This comment subsequently came under sustained criticism from Nazanin’s family and the media who insisted that such information was untrue and likely to make the situation worse. Richard Ratcliffe told us that this statement was used in evidence against her at a subsequent trial and in Iranian propaganda.

“Coherence and accuracy are vital not only in fairness to the families involved, but also to send the message to countries that may consider using detainees as leverage, that the UK will not tolerate this form of statecraft involving any of its nationals.”

It also stressed the importance of considering when to go public about a hostage case. It said: “The government and its allies have missed key opportunities to publicly demonstrate the importance placed on the release of UK nationals, both privately and in public. The decision of Richard Ratcliffe to begin a hunger strike is perhaps the starkest example of this failure.

“Anoosheh Ashoori and his family regretted that they waited so long to go public with his case and that it was only this publicity which persuaded the Government to elevate the priority of his case in negotiations with Iran. Had they remained quiet he may not have been included in the March 2022 deal under which he was released.”