Daughter Of Brit Jailed In Iran Accuses UK Government Of Sheer Neglect
The daughter of a British-Iranian man imprisoned in Tehran has accused the UK government of “sheer neglect” in failing to publicly highlight her father’s case.
In contrast to the highly-publicised case of British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Elika Ashoori said that her father’s case has received much less attention.
She added that she feels “deep disappointment” at the UK’s handling of engineer Anoosheh Ashoori’s detainment.
In a recent BBC interview, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab criticised Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s treatment as “torturous” but did not make direct reference to Ashoori’s situation.
Raab instead referred to “other dual nationals” several days after Elika formally asked them to stop using the term.
She took to social media to express her “deep disappointment” and questioned what it would take for the UK authorities to give her father’s plight the same attention as Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Elika also said that her 67-year-old father is showing signs of COVID-19 in Evin Prison in the Iranian capital Tehran.
She added: “He has not been granted medical furlough. He has no access to medical care or basic hygiene. How much closer to death does he have to get for the British government and the media to be interested or give his life value?”
Reports in Iranian media on Sunday said that a GBP-400 million deal was being brokered to release Zaghari-Ratcliffe, however, Elika wanted to know why her father’s name was not mentioned.
She accused the UK authorities of displaying “sheer neglect” and failing to take responsibility for all detained dual citizens in Iran.
Her father was arrested in August 2017 after flying to Iran to visit his mother and was jailed for 10 years for spying for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad a year later.
Critics say that prisoners are often used as pawns in exchange for diplomatic changes and other prisoners.
Ashoori’s family said that his imprisonment is linked to a decades-old GBP-400 million debt owed by the UK after a tank deal was aborted amid the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
