Nazanin’s husband, Richard, said: “The shock was because two weeks earlier, we had been sent signals this would not happen. The Revolutionary Guard sent me a message that the UK government should make an ‘agreement’, and I should pressure them. If the UK government reached this agreement, then Nazanin’s case would be closed without court.”
Back in April, Nazanin had taken her daughter Gabriella to visit her parents, who live in Iran. On the day that the pair were due to fly back to the UK, Nazanin was arrested by authorities in Iran and forcibly separated from her toddler.
Gabriella is currently being cared for by her grandparents but the Iranian government has seized her passport so she cannot return to her father.
Nazanin was held in prison without charge for over three months. Until recently, she was not allowed to see a lawyer, her daughter, her parents or even take a call from her husband.
Nazanin was indicted alongside three other defendants, of whom she has no prior knowledge. The only thing the four have in common in Western passports. The vague charges could mean anything but nothing good. In the statement, Richard points out that the motive of Iran’s authorities was not any wrongdoing on Nazanin’s part but to gain a political advantage, so this indictment is a lot of “smoke and walls”.
The Regime is not even consistent with their treatment of her; twice Nazanin has been released and twice her release has been retracted; her case was dropped and then she was indicted.
in his statement, Richard said: “What I see most is infighting. Nazanin’s fate is of different people intervening to show how powerful they are and make someone else look stupid, asserting they are the kings of their castle. This is why the charges keep changing, why the first set were rushed out full of typos, why the Tehran Guards said privately to ignore what the Kerman Guards put in the media. Wrapped up in their battles, this cacophony of chiefs are remarkably insulated in how they use other people’s lives.”
The only comfort that Nazanin’s family and friends can take is that in order to increase their bargaining power with the government, Nazanin’s have improved. She is allowed weekly visits from Gabriella and will soon be allowed to talk to her parents via phone twice a week; she was even permitted a copy of War and Peace to read.
However, whilst Nazanin remains in prison there is still no telling what might happen.
