THE husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has gone on hunger strike for the second time in two years due to the Government’s “inaction and failure” in its handling of her case, their MP has said.
Richard Ratcliffe is beginning a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in London and intends to sleep in a tent following his wife losing her latest appeal in Iran. Non-profit organisation Redress said that, while Zaghari-Ratcliffe has not yet been summoned to prison, it is unclear whether she will be returned to prison or house arrest with an ankle tag, or whether she will be “left in limbo in Iran indefinitely”.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, has been in custody in the country since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
She was taking her daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and was sentenced to five years in prison shortly afterwards.
On a petition on Change.org, Ratcliffe wrote: “In truth, I never expected to have to do a hunger strike twice. It is not a normal act.”
Referencing his previous strike, he added: “It seems extraordinary the need to adopt the same tactics to persuade government here,
to cut through the accountability gap.”
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