‘It could be over soon’: Richard Ratcliffe on the hope that keeps him fighting to free Nazanin

March 7 is a significant date for British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

It’s the day her first five-year prison sentence was supposed to finish and it also marks the end of her second year-long sentence imposed on her by the Iranian government.

But almost six years since the 43-year-old mother-of-one was first detained in Iran, there is still no clear indication of when she will be released.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe from West Hampstead, Camden was arrested on April 3 2016 in Tehran Airport under bogus spying charges.

She was returning home to the UK after visiting her family in Iran.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe has been campaigning for her release ever since.

“I don’t think there is a real justification as to why they’re still holding her and everyone would like to forget about the fact that her second sentence is due to end,” explained the 45-year-old accountant.

“It obviously is at this point open ended.”

Hope for his wife’s return

Despite facing another year that the couple’s seven-year-old daughter Gabriella will not be able to see her mother, Richard remains hopeful that their nightmare will soon be over.

“We all live our lives one day at a time and actually our situation has lasted six years but it wasn’t inevitable that it would last six years,” he explained.

“There was always the potential that things could end quite soon and there’s no point in getting too down about stuff.

“Part of what keeps hope going is the fact that it could be over soon.

“The Iranian New Year is coming up, which is a time that people get released sometimes but I think we need to stop waiting for a knight in shining armour.”

And Richard said looking after little Gabriella has helped pushed him through.

“We’re fairly unique for a hostage story as there was a young child involved from the get go,” he said.

“The act of looking after a baby takes up a lot of time and she’s busy growing up so my main job in life these days is providing a home for her to grow up in.

“I fear that we might have a while longer to go yet but I need to check myself not to be pessimistic.”

Vienna talks

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with a number of British-Iranian dual citizens including Lewisham father-of-two Anoosheh Ashoori, are being held hostage by Iran over a £400 million arms debt owed to them by the UK.

“Following my hunger strike, the Iranian ambassador met with my MP Tulip Siddiq to say how much he was keen for Nazanin to be released but needed to ensure the UK had settled the debt,” he said.

“Similarly the noises that I’ve seen coming from the Iranians for the last couple of months have all been about the potential for a prisoner swap, which obviously means money under sanction being released.

“I think we’re in quite an uncertain moment as nuclear talks are still going on, they were in Vienna all of last week.

“They got quite close last weekend to reaching a deal.”

The Vienna talks are aimed at reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement with Iran.

The JCPOA is an agreement which was made in 2015 between Iran and seven world powers, the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.

“The impact of Ukraine has made a difference because the Russians came out with a statement yesterday saying how these sanctions on us are going to affect the Iran deal,” Richard said.

“The stuff that is happening elsewhere will bleed into the long running negotiations.

“Everyone was very hopeful that the nuclear deal would be signed and sorted by February but it hasn’t happened yet.

“The problem with linking us to the nuclear deal is that we’re held over debt, the deal becomes a bargaining chip, there are a lot of different people with different interests.

“The situation is inherently unstable and volatile and lots of people are trying to pull things in different directions.”

Last November, Mr Ratcliffe went on a 21-day hunger strike outside the Foreign Office to put pressure on the UK government to get his wife home.

“March 7 is the anniversary of the end of Nazanin’s first sentence, it is the date her second sentence was supposed to end,” he explained.

“I thought if she’s not home by then, we need to do something, we need to stop waiting for it all to be solved.

“I’ve asked the Foreign Office if the nuclear deal falls apart, what’s Plan B and I think they do have a Plan B but they’re quite coy about it.”

To help support the Free Nazanin campaign you can sign this petition or write to your local MP.