The husband of British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has delivered flowers to the Iranian Embassy to mark her third Mothers Day since she was jailed.
Richard Ratcliffe delivered a card on behalf of their daughter Gabriella with 155 bunches of flowers – one for each week she has been imprisoned for so far.
Speaking outside the embassy, he said: Weve come to deliver her a Mothers Day card, because obviously we cant do that in person, and to deliver 155 bunches of flowers, one for each week she has been held.
Flowers, partly because its a Mothers Day tradition, also because thats what people are given when theyve been released from prison in Iran.
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Nazanin – who has duel British-Iranian nationality – was arrested with Gabriella on April 3 2016 at Tehrans Imam Khomeini Airport on suspicion of spying.
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She is serving a five-year sentence in Tehrans notorious Evin Prison after being convicted of membership of an illegal group.
The trial by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran was widely condemned as unfair and she strenuously denies the charges against her.
Richard has previously said his wife was told by judges in court that her case related to an unpaid £400 million debt the UK owes to Iran in relation to purchase of Chieftain tanks in the 1970s.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt granted Nazanin diplomatic protection earlier this month, elevating dispute over her detention to a formal state-to-state issue.
Speaking about his four-year-old daughter, who is currently living in Iran, Mr Ratcliffe said: I spoke to Gabriella yesterday and theres a prison visit today. Were going to draw a card together for Granny, my mum.
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When asked about the stress the process has caused him and his wife, he said: Sometimes you speak to her and she seems fine, and sometimes shes really bleak and dark and threatening all sorts of things – but yesterday she was fine.
Often she decides that she needs to take matters into her own hands, she had that hunger strike to get medical treatment which hasnt been provided.
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In January, she went on hunger strike for three days saying the Iranian prison authorities had refused her treatment for a series of medical conditions including lumps in her breasts, severe neck pain, and numbness in her arms and legs.
METRO
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