March 23, 2022

Emergency Campaign Press Release/Update

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“We celebrate the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, two of the Iranian-British dual nationals unjustly held as political prisoners by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). This is an important step forward, but we demand to know why the other three Iranian-British dual nationals have not been freed, and what the British government is doing to secure their release,” says Larry Everest of the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC).

“The imprisonment of dual nationals exposes the illegitimacy of the IRI and its repressive apparatus,” Everest states. “The struggle by family members, people of conscience, and various organizations globally for their freedom intersected with the maneuverings of the Iranian and British governments over a long-standing debt, as well as the U.S. and other world powers involved in the current nuclear negotiations¹ to effect their release. But we are not going to forget the other dual nationals or hundreds of political prisoners who have not yet been released from Iran’s dungeons!”

This is the moment to amplify the global outcry for freedom for the at least 17 remaining dual-national prisoners and for all Iran’s political prisoners whose lives hang in the balance, including by signing and circulating the Campaign’s Emergency Appeal. This urgent reality is underscored by the recent death of 82-year-old Australian-Iranian Shokrollah Jebeli, “following months of torture” and “the denial of medical care,” according to Amnesty Iran.

Following her release, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe called for freedom for “other dual nationals, members of religious groups, or prisoners of conscience … there are so many other people we don’t know their names who have been suffering in prison in Iran.” Without that, she continued, “the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete.”

Other Imprisoned UK-Iran Dual Nationals Must Be Freed NOW! Why Does UK Foreign Secretary Refuse to Speak of Mehran Raoof’s Case?

The urgency of the situation is highlighted by the fact that three imprisoned UK-Iranian nationals—labor activist Mehran Raoof, conservationist Tahbaz Morad, and attorney Shahram Shirkhani—have so far been conspicuously left out of the deal struck between the IRI and the British government despite the illegitimacy of their torturous imprisonment:

Key points:

* The British government claimed that Morad, who has cancer, would be freed as part of its deal with Iran. Instead he’s been rearrested and imprisoned, and is now on hunger strike in protest, even as there is talk he may be released again soon.

* This week British officials made no voluntary reference to Raoof “suggesting he was never part of the negotiations,” the Guardian reports. Amnesty International is “very worried he was being left behind.” (See “Who Will Speak for Mehran Raoof?” IranWire, March 17)

* This is an outrage. Morad, Raoof, and Shirkhani must be freed now!

* It underscores the importance of the Emergency Appeal’s stance that the governments of the world proceed from their interests, while “the people of the U.S. and Iran, along with the people of the world, have OUR shared interests, as part of getting to a better world: to unite to defend the political prisoners of Iran.”

“It’s a shame that Nazanin and Anoosheh’s freedom has hinged on the relationship between the UK and the IRI,” Mariam Claren, who organized the #FreeNahid campaign for her imprisoned mother Nahid Taghavi, told the Emergency Campaign. As she told the Guardian recently, “All our families are just pawns in a shaming international game of chess.”

After her father’s release, Elika Ashoori, a signatory to the Emergency Appeal, told the Guardian, “There are dual nationals still being detained. Until we get to the root cause of this problem we can’t prevent cases to happen in the future.”