Free Nazanin: 89-year-old grandmother on hunger strike urges Boris Johnson to ‘pay debt now’

An 89-year-old grandmother has completed a five-day hunger strike in support of the campaign to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from detention in Iran.

Margaret Owen, a human rights barrister from Hammersmith, went without food for almost six days in support of Richard Ratcliffe’s three-week hunger strike outside the Foreign Office.

Ms Owen, who is the founder and president of the charity Widows for Peace through Democracy, told LondonWorld: “Nobody should praise me for doing five days, it was nothing.

“It was important for me that because he’s stopped his hunger strike it was no longer a story.

“We can’t let the spotlight go off on this. We’ve got to keep the pressure on.

“Boris is responsible - he’s torn that family apart.”

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained in Iran on spying charges she has always denied for the past five years, is held at her parents’ home in Tehran with an ankle tag, and is set to be sent back to prison to serve another year’s jail sentence and a year’s travel ban.

Her husband sat outside the Foreign Office for more than three weeks without food until Saturday, November 13, in protest at the government’s inaction on his wife’s case.

He is calling on the UK government to settle a historic £400m debt to Iran, which is acknowledged to be owed but is as yet unpaid.

Ms Owen ended her hunger strike on Sunday, November 21, due to health reasons, after not eating since Tuesday.

She said: “It’s our citizens - our Nazanin and the others - they are UK citizens. She deserves the protection of the UK government.

“I don’t know how he can dare to enjoy his Christmas if Nazanin is not back by then.

“There are so many issues that don’t have a solution. But this has a solution. Pay that debt now.”

The campaigner, who is meeting with Mr Ratcliffe and his MP Tulip Siddiq today, admitted: “I’m feeling a bit frail this morning.

“Last night Richard told me to stop because the last thing he wants to do is encourage people to risk their health.

“I thought I was going to go on for eight days but I can’t. I’m going very carefully with a smoothie.”

But she insisted she “didn’t feel ill or hungry” during the strike and said: “Everybody said to me ‘you’re old, you mustn’t do it, you’re in danger’.

“Older people eat less than younger people and I have a smaller appetite.

“I drank a lot of water and I didn’t have any pain. Today I’m feeling really wobbly but it will pass. I didn’t ask my doctor [before the strike] because I knew he’d say no.”

Ms Owen, who previously worked as an immigration and asylum lawyer and is a United Nations consultant on women’s issues, said hunger striking had a long and powerful history.

“In the end, hunger strikes are the only things that are left,” she said.

“At least we are in charge of our bodies when our protests have no effect.”

Mr Ratcliffe and Ms Owen’s hunger strike comes months after the Turkish lawyer Ebru Timtik died in prison in Turkey following a 238-day hunger strike, demanding a fair trial.

“Hunger strikers have died in Turkey,” Ms Owen said.

“One I knew very well, who was 41, a lawyer in prison, did 238 days and she died a few weeks ago. That’s all we have left in the end when everything else is closed to us.”

She urged the government to take action to bring Nazanin home, and said international sanctions against Iran did not apply, as the debt was incurred prior to their introduction.

“Boris was the one who said she was there to train journalists and he’s never apologised for that,” she said. “As Foreign Secretary he said we’ve got to pay the debt. He is responsible.

“He’s never once spoken to Richard and he will have his luxurious Christmas in Chequers and there she is. He’s torn that family apart.”

After attending the candlelit vigil where Keir Starmer showed his support for Mr Ratcliffe, who she said had “aged” and looked “so ill” when he left his camp, Ms Owen said she was inspired to take action herself to champion the cause.

“I visited him four times and went to the Friday night candlelit vigil,” she said.

“With my hunger strike I wanted it to go all over the UK.

“Any moment she will get the summons to go back to prison. That’s terrifying for her and for Richard and we worry so much not just about her physical health but her mental health.

“She knows what it’s been like, as she’s been in it before. I can’t sleep for worrying.

“My Iranian friends say there are thousands of people in the jails and executions happen every day. I always say if you can’t save six million you might be able to save one.”