Lawyers acting for the Zaghari-Ratcliffe family have accused the UK government of playing politics with the lives of UK citizens, The Guardian reports, alleging that the government's delay in taking effective action to bring Ratcliffe home is due to a desire to pander to the US administration.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a dual British-Iranian citizen who was imprisoned in Tehran in 2016 on spying charges. This March she was released to house arrest, and now her husband is claiming that she could be back home in the UK already if only the UK government paid a certain debt to the Iranian authorities.
The debt concerned - £400 million that the UK government admits to - is for an arms deal with the deposed Iranian Shah. Ratcliffe's lawyers have stated that the UK government “continues to raise every possible legal objection to payment of the debt and has plainly failed to engage in constructive dialogue with Tehran,” and that its decision to postpone the next court hearing on the debt repayment until the day after the US presidential election “in effect plays politics with the lives of British citizens.”
The lawyers claim: “The UK government is apparently waiting for implicit permission from the US government to pay the UK’s legally owed debts, payment of which would allow Nazanin (and other innocent British nationals) finally to come home. The message appears to be that the safety of British citizens abroad is subordinate to falling in line with US policy.”