Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

[chrissa1]

https://news.sky.com/story/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-and-anoosheh-ashouri-iran-detainees-heading-to-airport-before-leaving-country-lawyer-says-12566669

[Gromit]

naomi24
She was arrested but not prosecuted. They had no evidence. Then our erstwhile Foreign Secretary told the Iranians wrongly, that she was guilty. Another in a long list of gaffes. Unfortunately this one resulted in an innocent woman rotting in a Tehran jail for 6 years.

[naomi24]

She was arrested before Johnson said anything, gromit. My link explains the reason.

[dannyk13]

Gromit //told the Iranians wrongly, that she was guilty.//
Is that your interpretation of what was said?

[Gromit]

This is getting silly.

She could have had previous jobs as a brain surgeon or a nuclear physicist. She had once had an admin job at the BBC. That does mean she was doing that on her holiday.

The Boris apologists get more absurd.

[Gromit]

I have not said she was arrested because of what Boris Johnson said.
I have said she was PROSECUTED because of what our Foreign Secretary told them.

[naomi24]

No, gromit. Knowing full well she had already been arrested - and the link explains why - the absurdity is your insistence that something else was responsible for her troubles.

[Gromit]

From Zaghari-Ratcliffe‘s wikipedia page.

// Boris Johnson mistake
A central part of Zaghari-Ratcliffe's defence was that she was there on a holiday and never worked to train journalists in the country.
However, on 1 November 2017, the then-British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said "When we look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it, at the very limit. These remarks appear to have put her at risk.
Her employer, Thomson Reuters Foundation, called on Johnson to "immediately correct the serious mistake he made" in this statement. They added "She is not a journalist and has never trained journalists at the Thomson Reuters Foundation". Four days later, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was returned to court in Iran where the Foreign Secretary's statement was cited as evidence against her. //

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazanin_Zaghari-Ratcliffe

[naomi24]

Yes, I read it - and it doesn't detract from the fact that she had already been arrested.

[dannyk13]

Gromit//This is getting silly.//
I agree, please desist.

[Gromit]

On a positive note, the sanctions against Iran can end (when the US agrees a new nuclear treaty) and Europe can begin to end its reliance on Russia oil and gas.

[Gromit]

The Shah of Iran ordered British tanks, and paid £400 million up front. He was deposed and the tanks never delivered, but we kept the money for 40 years.
Apparently we have just paid £400 million back to Iran.

[Peter Pedant]

good - about time haw haw haw
( seven years innit )

when the man at the ministry says dont go
you shouldnt go!
( now he says, Nararene comments)

[Peter Pedant]

// The Shah of Iran ordered British tanks,//
let me add a little law ( 1000 ABers scream oh no!)

The revolutionary govt 1979 declared a revolutionary govt. So what - they repudiated and refused to pay Shah's debts. default. no moolah. no payee and no returnee goods. That one

and then said - oh the £400m - that is different, can we have it back please. and no you cant have the american embassy workers NOR can you have the embassy that was burnt down

picky huh

[Peter Pedant]

thcweam - - - thotha

[Gromit]

PP,
The matter went to court.
// In 1990 Iran made a claim for its money back for the undelivered weaponry by taking the UK to international arbitration in The Hague. The UK made a counterclaim in 1996, but in an arbitration in 2001 the UK lost both claims. //

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/nov/11/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-iran-uk-debt-arms-deal

[ladybirder]

I am SO pleased to read that she is free to come home at last.

[Hopkirk]

I strongly suspect we don't know the full story, and probably never will.

I have strong suspicions though that what Boris said had some element of truth in it. Why else would he have that thought in his mind?

[maggiebee]

It's my ball and you're not getting to play! More playground squabbles.

[Ken4155]

Let's not inflate the party balloons until the poor woman is safe and sound.

[Bazile]

As i understand it , wasn't Tehran saying from the outset that she would be released if this 400 million was repaid .

If we owed them this money , why didn't we just pay up and she would have been released from her incarceration ages ago ?