Downing Street confirms it is considering idea to help secure release of British-Iranian woman from jail

The government could consider giving Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection to help secure her release from jail in Iran, Downing Street has confirmed after Boris Johnson discussed the idea with the detained woman’s husband.

“I think that the foreign secretary has obviously spoken with her husband and that is one of the options being looked at,” Theresa May’s spokesman told reporters.

Earlier, Richard Ratcliffe had said this was something he discussed with Johnson during a phone call between the pair to discuss the British-Iranian woman’s 18-month detention, before a planned meeting later this week.

Giving diplomatic protection is not the same as diplomatic immunity, under which diplomatic and consular staff cannot be prosecuted. It is a state-to-state mechanism under which a matter is moved beyond the usual consular level and on to a position where the state making the move is formally seeking redress over an issue.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 38, was arrested after travelling to Iran on holiday to show her then-infant daughter to her parents, who live there.

In an open letter to Johnson published in the Evening Standard newspaper, Ratcliffe said he and the human rights charity Redress had written to the Foreign Office two months ago explaining why his wife should receive diplomatic protection, but had not received a reply.

“The Foreign Office always emphasises that Nazanin is a dual national,” Ratcliffe told Johnson. “But her life is in Britain – she has a British home, a British job, a British husband, a British child. Given the way dual nationality works, Britain can choose to say, ‘We will protect her as though she is British.’

“The Foreign Office refuses to acknowledge that she is being held because she is British and that she faces a longer sentence because of your words – my understanding of the strange reluctance to apologise.”

The UK government response to the case has been confused by Johnson saying last week that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been in Tehran to train journalists. On Sunday, the environment secretary, Michael Gove, said he did not know why she was there.

May’s spokesman declined to comment on Gove’s comments, saying only: “The government’s position on this is clear. She was there on holiday. It wasn’t for any other purpose.”

He said May was taking a close interest in the case and had spoken twice to the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, about it, most recently in September.

In the wake of Gove’s comments, Ratcliffe said on Monday he had written to the government asking for ministers to be reminded she was in the country on holiday at the time of her arrest.

“I wrote to the Foreign Office and said, listen, can you please remind cabinet ministers the government’s position is that the government has no doubt that Nazanin was there on holiday,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The comments on Sunday by Gove were seen as choosing to give political support to Johnson, who prompted anger last week by wrongly saying Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been in Tehran to train journalists.

The foreign secretary’s comments to a committee of MPs and his subsequent reluctance to apologise for the error, which could potentially lead to Zaghari-Ratcliffe being detained for longer in Iran, have prompted calls for him to resign.

Ratcliffe reiterated his view that Johnson’s resignation would not help his wife’s case. He said the foreign secretary had promised to meet him in the next few days, and that the pair might go to Iran together to seek Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release.

When asked on Sunday what Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been doing in Iran when she was arrested, Gove replied: “I don’t know.”

After both Ratcliffe and the UK government maintained she was there for a holiday, Gove added: “I take exactly her husband’s assurances in that regard. Her family are the people who should know.”

Ratcliffe told Today he assumed Gove had been seeking to shore up Johnson’s position. He said: “I think there’s a wider politics that people are positioning themselves around, and that will be partly to do with those that are pushing for the foreign secretary to resign, and there will be those that are defending the foreign secretary.”

However, Ratcliffe added, he did not think Gove’s comments had worsened his wife’s position: “In all honesty I think it’s more important that the foreign secretary takes a clear position, and the foreign secretary is the one that is appearing now on Iranian TV.

“I think his positioning is vital. I think other members of the cabinet think it’s important they don’t muddy it, but they’re less influential.”

Ratcliffe said he had had “a positive” phone conversation with Johnson, and that the foreign secretary had promised to meet him this week. At the meeting, he said, they would discuss the idea of a joint trip to Iran to try to see his wife.

Ratcliffe argued it would “send a very clear message, diplomatically” if both went to the prison. Another possible plan would be to see whether she could be given diplomatic protection, he added.



Asked about calls from Labour for Johnson to resign over his error, Ratcliffe said he understood why this was happening, but did not think it would be helpful for now. “There’s obviously a politics that is much bigger than Nazanin and much bigger than us, and not for me to get involved in.” he said.

“I think I’ve tried to be very clear that my job is to bring Nazanin home. I’m really appreciative of all the pressure and concern and push on the government to do more, and also appreciative that for the government it is their job to bring her home.”



Asked about the idea of Johnson stepping down, he said: “I don’t think it’s helpful for Nazanin at this point. I don’t think it’s helpful also in terms of how that looks in Iran, for me to be looking like I’m playing politics.

“It’s very important for the Iranians to see that this is just a family who is battling, and to bring Nazanin home, and to not get the sense that we’re some sort of great Machiavellian power.”

Ratcliffe said his wife, who is having medical checks after lumps were found in her breasts, was “very volatile” and angry in phone calls, and was finding the diplomatic focus of the case very difficult.