Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

This, from the DM at the time of the furore over BJ’s comments:

In what looked like the beginning of a climbdown, after letting Boris Johnson be viciously dumped on for a week, “Richard Ratcliffe revealed Iran had been looking at extending her {Nazanin’s) sentence before Mr. Johnson’s gaffe, telling ITV news: “In fairness, there were hints of new charges before he made the comments. Richard Ratcliffe knows better than anyone that as confirmed in the Daily Telegraph report of 9th October, the fresh charges had been detailed in full by then. - in other words, Boris Johnson’s comment affected absolutely nothing.’

This is why, as per my very first post on this topic, I think there’s more than meets the eye here.

They said they were on a family holiday but who on earth takes their little ones to that sort of place for a family holiday
Yes, they were visiting her parents and taking the little girl to see her grandparents. I wonder if the grandparents were not allowed out of the country for some reason, to visit the family in the UK? It is possible for Iranians to visit the UK.

I think Nazanin must have been aware of the dangers of going home on a visit, so surely would have been careful not to do anything to endanger herself or her child.
However, even something she had done years before might have been enough to make the Iranian officials suspicious, or even just connections she had to people about whom the Iranians had objections.

A poster criticised NZR for going to Iran without knowing the very basic fact that she was visiting her parents there. Any opinion given about her going on the visit without knowing that basic fact is so uninformed as to be utterly useless and therefore open to criticism. Having said all that, given our history with Iran, it’s understandable that they view us and anyone with links to the BBC with deepest suspicion ( and she was a training assistant with the BBC for about 18 months in 2009/10) Tgats why fuckwit BJ should have trodden carefully and accurately but he’s totally incapable of that type of behaviour. JH is behaving like a grown up over this but so much damage has been done

She is still a British citizen and has not been served well by our diplomats, especially the ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who was too lazy to bother to understand the facts and uttered rubbish which made her plight worse. The new Foreign Secretary may have tried to repair the situation but to no effect.

Foolish to have gone in the first place, grandparents or not, they could have used the internet to keep in touch. this is what makes it suspicious. She should not be denied medial treatment though.

She knew her country better than any of us and should have known the risk.

You must be fun at a dinner party.

I think it's worth emphasising that everyone is entitled to an opinion and to express it, even if others think it has no value.

Maybe harsh but accurate - unlike the basis of some posters opinions.

Harsh words maryeliza54. Feel better now for your self righteous indignation?

If you look at the website of the Thomson Reuters Foundation it is possible to see, I think, what the Iranian authorities might be objecting to. The Foundation does appear to be an activist foundation and, while it looks like one whose objectives most westerners would probably support, I'm not sure Iran would see it in the same light.

Which doesn't justify denying a prisoner medical treatment but perhaps support for "socio-economic progress" and efforts to "empower people" in a country that doesn't want foreign interference could be seen, from their point of view, as decidedly unwelcome.

She is a project manager with Thomson Reuters Foundation - not everyone who is connected with Reuter’s will be a journalist but hey let’s believe Iran because their record on press freedom is to die for (sometimes literally). As for the poster who didn’t know the mother had gone with her little girl to see her parents (and the child’s grandparents) I despair - not knowing a basic fact like that gives you absolutely no right to any opinion quite frankly

Whether she is guilty or not she should still be allowed access to proper medical care.

I've read that Iran doesn't recognise dual nationality, so Nazanin's British nationality is irrelevant to the case.

I wonder if we will ever know the truth about this very very sad story.

She worked for Reuters.

I haven’t read that she is a charity worker but have read she worked for Reuters. Maybe there is something we don’t know but it’s still a very unhappy story.

This from The Economist:

‘Iran’s secretive regime has long hounded the country’s journalists. It is one of the world’s worst abusers of press freedom. It restricts visas for foreign reporters and assigns “translators” to those who visit, to monitor their every word. Fearful of regular round-ups, many Iranian journalists have fled to Europe. But the regime has pursued them into exile. Earlier this year it ordered the seizure of the Iranian assets of 152 contributors to the BBC Persian service, which has an audience of 13m Iranians. This month Ahmad Mola Nissi, an Iranian-Arab activist, was shot dead on a street in The Hague. Fellow activists suspect the long arm of Iran.’

This lady knew full well the risks she was taking.

Nanabilly People who are from that country and are taking their child to visit its grandparents?

I'm of the opinion that there is a lot more to this than they are admitting and I have said so right from the start. They said they were on a family holiday but who on earth takes their little ones to that sort of place for a family holiday . I think there possibly was some wrongdoing by her but it may all have been blown out of proportion .

BJ didn’t read his briefing papers properly because he’s a lazy idle git who doesn’t do detail and who loses jobs for lying

Training journalists; power of the pen, perhaps. Really needs throwing in jail for that.

Interesting to see that someone has said that Nazanin 'has done nothing wrong'.

I have no idea whether she is guilty or not as I don't know her. I, like all of us, only know what her family have said.

I also feel here is more to this story other than the official family version that she was visiting her parents.

After all, Boris Johnson was under the impression that she was training journalists out there.

KateF I agree. We should pay our debts. We should do it in a way that does not connect the two but we have to accept that Iran is doing that. Hopefully there are at least discussions happening about this debt. Remember that Obama did pay the US debt to Iran and the Republicans used it against him and pretended that he had just given them money. I cannot see the Tories doing it, but hopefully things will change next year and we can at least be having talks.

Iran should be thanking us for accommodating many refugees from their country as well as having been humanely rescued by the services that we have at sea during the perilous crossings.

Reassuring to know that the Foreign Secretary responsible may one day be PM. Any other line of work and you'd be out of a job.

I have been horrified by this story from the first - and by the inhumanity shown to this poor woman. She has done no wrong, and should have been released long ago to be with her family in the UK. A mistake was made in the beginning by our Foreign Secretary describing her as a journalist, when she was no such thing; and she has been treated with suspicion and suffered for this ever since.

People in power should be far more careful of the words they use, and ensure they are in possession of the facts. Negotiations for her release - as well as medical treatment - should continue.