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Free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

British-Iranian mum detained in Iran accused of trying to overthrow the regime

The British Prime Minister Theresa May has raised concerns about the mother of one with the Iranian president.

THE BRITISH PRIME minister Theresa May has raised concerns with Iran’s president over several cases involving dual British-Iranian nationals, including an imprisoned mother.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, was arrested at Tehran airport on 3 April as she prepared to return to Britain with her daughter after visiting family in Iran.

Her two-year-old daughter had her British passport taken away and is staying in Iran with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s parents but is unable to leave the country.

Overthrow the regime

The dual citizen is being accused of trying to overthrow the Iranian government.

The BBC reports that May “raised concerns” about the imprisoned mother during a phone call with Hassan Rouhani.

Iran does not recognise dual citizenship meaning Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be considered an Iranian.

According to a statement from the Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “identified and arrested after massive intelligence operations” as one of “the heads of foreign-linked hostile networks”.

Criminal activity

She was alleged to have conducted “various missions… leading her criminal activities under the direction of media and intelligence services of foreign governments”.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in a furnished room in a prison in the southeastern city of Kerman, it added.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said his wife had been held in solitary confinement for 45 days, and scoffed at the charges levelled against her.

He said he believes his wife and child are being used as a “political bargaining chip”.

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    Mute Joey_Westland
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    Aug 15th 2016, 8:58 AM

    If she was arrested in Britain or America we’d all take it for granted that she was a spy.

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:02 AM

    Exactly what I was going to say. Sorry, but posting a cute family photo doesn’t convince anyone with a brain that she’s not a spy. She may be, she may not be. None of us here know.

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    Mute Joey_Westland
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:08 AM

    Exactly.
    There’s very little information about it and unfortunately for her her incarceration has coincided with Brexit and the aftermath so doubt if the British government have been too active either.

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    Mute Crocodylus Pontifex
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    Aug 15th 2016, 10:00 AM

    But it says she is a mum in the headline!

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    Mute Gone Feisin
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    Aug 15th 2016, 1:47 PM

    Shame on you all. Iran is bad, don’t question the narrative

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    Mute Jester VonDoom
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    Aug 15th 2016, 6:04 PM

    its not like the US would intervene in another country to topple a regime

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    Mute Damocles
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:48 AM

    Petr’s right, we Brits are always trying to take over other countries. Always. It’s what we do.

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    Mute Jester VonDoom
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:04 AM

    the people they grab probably have nothing to do with espionage, and they never get a sniff of the real foreign agents strolling about

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:07 AM

    What’s the basis for this? The Iranians are no fools. What you say seems unlikely.

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    Mute gus sheridan
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:13 AM

    Iran is no friend of the West, not a place to visit when spurious charges can be laid against you at any time! Avoid!

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    Mute John003
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:44 AM

    Petr are you and Jester the same person?
    Is their any Islamic regime in the world you don’t embrace and defend
    Why don’t you move to Iran and enjoy all their freedoms

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    Mute Chlorines72
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    Aug 15th 2016, 1:43 PM

    I was there ‘gus’ in late 2001 for the World Cup play offs. Fantastic people, very western in their tastes, loved American movies and fashion. Kept asking me about Roy Keane , found them to be very warm and friendly people.

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    Mute Malachi
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    Aug 15th 2016, 3:22 PM

    The people in Iran are great. They mostly have a thirst for integration with the West, their population is also quite youthful.

    The problem with Iran is the old theocrats in power. Hopefully we’ll live to see the youth in Iran take back control of their country from the oppressive imams who run it.

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    Mute Margie Murph
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    Aug 15th 2016, 3:52 PM

    It would be unlikely to you Petr. You being an Islamist who can see nothing wrong with totalitarian tyrannies as long as they are not white and western. Anyone who makes allowances for the Iranian sharia loving theocracy has to be anti democratic to the core and this obviously informs all the seditious, communist, totalitarian garbage you spout. You should go,there yourself. Love to see you in an Iranian prison. See how quickly you would,change your tune when you’re at the receiving end of tyranny where no human rights or a sh!t was given.

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    Mute Margie Murph
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    Aug 15th 2016, 3:53 PM

    Except when they’re hanging people from cranes.

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    Mute Monty Wuggy
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    Aug 15th 2016, 4:18 PM

    Malachi: I agree, there’s a lot to be optimistic about Iran. For instance Iran is one of the highest countries in the world when it comes to growth in science in the last few decades. In addition, over 70% of their science graduates are women, something which would be unthinkable in Saudi.

    There’s a lot to abhor about the regime including its repression of LGBTQ people and its anti-semitism, but I believe engagement with Iran instead of complete isolation is the way to encourage progress in the country. Part of the reason the Iranian regime has held on to power, is because of the quite accurate perception within Iran that the US are not a friend to them considering their deep support to the Saudis and their history of involvement in Iran, like the coup which overthrew their democratic leader decades ago and the support of the brutal Shah. People will tolerate tyrannical governments when there’s feeling that a foreign adversary is waiting inflict damage upon their country.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/amyguttman/2015/12/09/set-to-take-over-tech-70-of-irans-science-and-engineering-students-are-women/#3a808e686587

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    Mute Jester VonDoom
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    Aug 15th 2016, 5:30 PM

    Malachi i agree with you there, probably a bit idealistic to say it but the overthrow of the Shah was a missed opportunity

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    Mute prouesse f
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    Aug 15th 2016, 5:52 PM

    @malakyst ” integration with the West” … I call it being quite eurocentric.

    I see you finally learnt the word “theocracy”.

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    Mute Malachi
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    Aug 15th 2016, 8:11 PM

    What are you babbling about Prouesse? Eurocentric? No, the Iranians are more into American culture if anything.

    Learning the word theocracy? I honestly haven’t a clue what you’re on about most of the time…

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    Mute Malachi
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    Aug 15th 2016, 8:25 PM

    @Monty

    Engagement with Iran should be done carefully if at all. It’s important not to give the leaders in the country too much legitimacy in my view, they are mostly dangerous bigots.

    Isolation may seem harsh but I’d much rather wait until the populace rise up against the leadership before giving the mullahs any credence. Maybe then, their new leaders would be worth speaking to.

    It’s beginning to look like the people in Iran have had enough of their authoritarian, religiously enforced shackles.

    You’re right in it would be unwise to completely cut them adrift, that would maybe inflame anti-Western sentiment even more, but it’s a double edged sword. If the West don’t engage with the leadership, the people may take things into their own hands to force warmer relations.

    It’s very hard to tell what the correct course of action is, but one certainty is that it’s the people of Iran that should be reached out to, not the glorified preachers that run the place.

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    Mute Jason Healy
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    Aug 15th 2016, 1:13 PM

    Heard about this month’s ago, she works for a charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, she’s Iranian married to a British man. She was in Iran visiting her parents when she was arrested on trumped up charges, when the Iranians found this out they moved her to a different detention centre as they will keep doing to save face

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    Mute Rosa Parks
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    Aug 15th 2016, 11:35 AM

    I wish westerners would stop moving to anti western dictatorships given these regimes like making westerners scapegoats.

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    Mute Jimmy Rustle
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    Aug 15th 2016, 11:31 AM

    I can’t imagine them arresting her at random. They must have been following her activity very closely before arresting her on departure. It’s called building a case. Guilty.

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    Mute Malachi
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    Aug 15th 2016, 12:42 PM

    It’s entirely possible she could have been arrested at random. They do it in North Korea to make an example of unfortunate people sometimes.

    Then again she could be a spy.

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    Mute Jester VonDoom
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    Aug 15th 2016, 5:33 PM

    there are internal factors too, its easier to convince people you need the security apparatus and to make them feel threatened by every so often nabbing a ‘spy’. the professional lads are a lot harder to catch

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Aug 15th 2016, 12:44 PM

    Politics, another name for money and bull s…t.

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    Mute jack napier
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    Aug 15th 2016, 9:20 AM

    Wonder Woman in disguise

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