Iran's top rights official urges Britain to release jailed Iranian national at once
Secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi has criticized the British government for refusing to return a Christian Iranian national, Richard John, demanding his immediate release from jail.
The Iranian official said on Sunday that John has been in prison for two decades due to some accusations, lamenting that he has not been given a one-day furlough since he was imprisoned, even for treatment in a hospital under tight security.
Gharibabadi, who is also the deputy chief of the Judiciary for international affairs, added that the Iranian national is not in a good condition in jail, reiterating that he has been deprived of even basic medical services.
The official further criticized the UK for refraining from taking the due measure despite efforts made by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to follow up on the case to return John home.
Gharibabadi explained that while hoping to be deported to Iran, John gave up his British citizenship years ago, adding that Britain did not agree to free him under the pretext that he could be a threat to British nationals.
“It’s not clear how he could be a threat to British nationals once he returns to Iran,” he wondered.
In fact, he continued, it is the British government that has posed a “threat” to the life of the Iranian national.
Tehran showed its goodwill in two recent cases imprisoned in Iran, Gharibabadi said, urging the British government to do the same on humanitarian grounds.
Iran in March released two dual British-Iranian nationals, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anousheh Ashouri, jailed for involvement in espionage activities against the Islamic Republic, with the pair leaving the country for the UK.
Ashouri, who previously lived in southeast London with his family, was detained in August 2017 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for cooperating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad and two years for obtaining 33,000 euros in “illicit funds” nearly a year later.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, had been found guilty of plotting to orchestrate a soft overthrow of the Islamic Republic and has been in jail since 2016.
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