By Ben Kerrigan-
Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said he raised the case of imprisoned British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe during a recent visit to Tehran. Mr Straw was invited to Iran to attend the Tehran security conference, but also held meetings with members of the Iranian government – attended by Nicholas Hopton, the British ambassador to Iran and his officials.
Mother-of-one Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit in which she travelled to Iran to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents. The 39-year-old, from Hampstead, north London, is currently serving a five-year sentence over questionable allegations that she plotted plotting to overthrow the Tehran government. Speaking to the Press Association after returning from the visit, Mr Straw said the meetings he had in the Iranian capital were “very cordial”.
Straw said: “We made strong representations about the need for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and another gentleman, to be released on compassionate grounds.” Mr Straw said he was told by the Iranians that they are considering this option.
“The important thing is that both of these people are released as soon as possible,” Mr Straw added.
Mr Straw was accompanied by Lord Norman Lamont-the Uk’s representative to Iran, and former ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott.
Mr Straw said they had been invited to attend the Tehran security conference but during their visit also held meetings with members of the Iranian government – attended by Nicholas Hopton, the British ambassador to Iran and his officials.
Also in attendance was Iran’s vice president and chairman of the Iranian atomic energy organisation Ali Akbar Salehi and Javad Zarif, the country’s foreign minister. Mr Straw’s visit follows another made by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson last month, after it was revealed that comments made by the Foreign Secretary that Ratcliffe was in Iran as a journalist appeared to worsen her case.