Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Janet Daby
Main Page: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)Department Debates - View all Janet Daby's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Janet Daby Excerpts(2 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
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James Cleverly
Obviously, the majority of the interactions with Iran take place within the FCDO at ministerial level, and I can assure the hon. Member that the Prime Minister takes a very keen interest in this, as does the Foreign Secretary and as do I. I can only repeat what I have said previously: the Government will not rest until we have secured the release and repatriation of these incarcerated British dual nationals.
Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Tulip Siddiq) for securing this urgent question, and thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for granting it. The Minister knows of my constituent only too well—Anoosheh Ashoori—because he continues to be held alongside Nazanin. He was recently denied conditional release without a hearing. I am not sure if the Minister is aware of that. His daughter Elika said:
“The fate of our family is at the mercy of the UK government. They…will decide whether we see our dad in the near future or when he is an old man in his 70s having wasted a decade of his life in…jail.”
Can the Minister say to me whether my constituent Anoosheh Ashoori will be granted diplomatic protection?
James Cleverly
I understand the frustration felt by the families of those who have been incarcerated in Iran, but the fault is with the Iranian Government. We will continue to work to secure their release, and to do everything that we believe is in the best interests of getting their release. Ultimately, however, the blame lies with the Iranian regime, and we should never lose sight of that. They are the ones who brought about these illegitimate charges, who are incarcerating British dual nationals, and who have the exclusive power to release them, and they should.