Tulip Siddiq and Sadiq Khan: London wants to bring Nazanin home. Boris Johnson could be doing far more

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a Londoner from West Hampstead who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2016 for a crime she did not commit. The UN has described her detention as arbitrary and unlawful. As Mayor of London and Nazanin’s local MP, we are calling for the Prime Minister’s personal intervention in her case and help to bring her home.

After over four years in Evin Prison, Nazanin has been under house arrest in Iran and is unable to leave the country. After dangling the possibility of freedom by removing her ankle tag, Nazanin was then told that she faced another year in prison and a further year’s travel ban. In effect, a two-year sentence. Another two years separated from her husband Richard and their daughter Gabriella, who still live in West Hampstead.

In the more than five years that she’s been held in Iran, Nazanin has been suicidal, found lumps on her breast, been on hunger strike, faced mental breakdown and had to bid an excruciating goodbye to Gabriella, who has now returned to the UK.

She is seven, attends a school in Camden and is growing up without her mother. The last time Gabriella had both her parents together in the same room was when she was 18 months old.

We believe that innocent Nazanin has suffered enough. Though responsibility for her predicament lies with Iran, there is more that the UK Government could be doing to help her, and we are making a personal plea to the Prime Minister to take stronger action to try to bring her home. Like us,

Nazanin is a Londoner. She deserves the opportunity to raise her daughter in the city that she calls home.

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has been pushed to the depths of despair, forced to go on his second hunger strike in two years to protest for his wife’s release. He was camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London for the last three weeks, starved of food and freezing.

We both went to visit Richard during his hunger strike and were shocked to see the physical and mental suffering he has endured in a bid to free his wife. Richard’s hunger strike must not be for nothing. It must be a wake-up call for those who believe that a wait-and-see approach was the best strategy to secure Nazanin’s release. We have waited for over five years, yet not seen any real progress.

Throughout Nazanin’s ordeal, we have dealt with five different Foreign Secretaries and five different Ministers of State for the Middle East. None of them have been able to bring her home, despite assurances that the UK Government would leave no stone unturned.

The Prime Minister has assured us that he is doing everything he can, but it is clear that the approach that his government has been taking is not working.

Nazanin is not the only British dual national from London who is being unlawfully detained in Iran. Anoosheh Ashoori is another Londoner who was arrested and imprisoned in 2017 while visiting his mother in Iran, and has been held ever since.

There are many other British citizens who have found themselves in this position through no fault of their own, and there could sadly be many more unless we send a strong message to Iran that this will not be tolerated. Londoners are relying on the Prime Minister to stand up against Iran’s actions.

This situation now needs the Prime Minister’s personal intervention to bring Nazanin, and all the other British dual nationals unlawfully detained in Iran, home.

There is a debate in Parliament today on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case. We hope the Prime Minister will take the time to listen to the views of MPs, including many from London, who will be reflecting those of their constituents in their speeches.

The outpouring of support for Richard Ratcliffe that we have seen in recent weeks should tell the Prime Minister all that he needs to know.

London is behind Richard Ratcliffe. London wants to reunite Nazanin’s family and bring her home. London wants the Prime Minister to act to make this happen.

Tulip Siddiq is the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn and Sadiq Khan is the Mayor of London