A British-Iranian woman released from a prison in Tehran last week has appealed for the release of another prisoner, Morad Tahbaz, whose family says is now on a hunger strike after being left out of the deal that brought her and another dual national home.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe told journalists on March 21 that her relief at being released following six years of detention in Iran was tempered by reports that Morad Tahbaz, an environmentalist who holds British, U.S., and Iranian passports, was again being held by authorities after temporarily being furloughed.
“I believe that the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete as to such time that all of us who are unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families,’’ she said at a news conference where Tahbaz’s daughter was present.
Morad Tahbaz
Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, a British-Iranian retiree, arrived back in Britain on March 17 after being released a day earlier.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taking her daughter to see her family in 2016 when she was arrested and convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She was sentenced to five years in jail and spent four of those years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and one under house arrest.
Ashoori was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in prison after being convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and another two years for "acquiring illegitimate wealth."
Both have denied any wrongdoing.
Anoosheh Ashoori on a plane en route to London after taking off from Tehran on March 16.
The release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori was reached as world leaders try to revive the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear pact. Negotiations on renewing the deal have stalled over Russia’s demand that its trade with Iran be guaranteed amid massive sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
After the release of the two prisoners, British officials said they had resolved what they called a parallel issue -- repaying a 400 million pound ($526 million) debt to Iran dating back to 1979 due to an unfulfilled purchase of tanks.
On the same day Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori were released, Tahbaz, who was arrested in January 2018 during a crackdown on environmental activists, gained his freedom as well.
However, the British Foreign Ministry said Tahbaz was taken back to prison on March 18 to be fitted with a tracking bracelet.
Tahbaz's daughter, Roxanne, told the March 21 news conference that since then her father's whereabouts have been unclear and that "we've only just found out...that he's been returned to the prison."
Tahrane Tahbaz, Morad's sister, said in an interview with the BBC that she hasn't heard from her brother since he was taken back into custody.
"We have heard through a relative just a few hours ago that he's been taken from the prison...to an undisclosed location and that he's gone on hunger strike," she added.
"Frankly, for four years we were led to believe that he would be part of the deal when it was made," she said. "And that's what we were told. And the deal was made, the money was paid...And he wasn't part of the deal -- and he's still there -- and we're very worried."