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Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe
A letter sent by the British Foreign Office last October to the lawyer for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian citizen, angered many international and human rights institutions.
The British Foreign Office said it is not legally obliged to provide assistance to a British-Iranian woman detained in Tehran since 2016, raising questions about how much protection the UK is willing to offer its vulnerable citizens and what protection is. British, according to the New York Times.
According to a letter sent by the ministry last October to the lawyer for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian citizen, she confirmed that she would not automatically provide consular assistance, saying Britain had “no legal obligation to care for British citizens abroad. “.
Ratcliffe, 42, was a project manager at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and was detained at Tehran airport in April 2016, while on her way home to Britain after visiting family. She was later sentenced to five years in prison after Iranian authorities accused her of plotting to overthrow the Iranian regime.
Her Britain v. Iran case has sparked a diplomatic row that includes allegations that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in retaliation for a decades-long debt Britain owes Iran in an arms deal.
Under international law, states can provide two types of international protection to citizens abroad: the lowest form, which Ratcliffe lawyers seek, is consular assistance, which provides assistance such as legal advice, special treatment negotiation, or visits.
As for the highest form of diplomatic protection, Britain considers its case a legal matter with Iran, making it an official case between one country and another.
The letter, the excerpts of which were published by The Times of London, angered Ratcliffe’s lawyer, his family, human rights groups and a former senior British official.
Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who granted Ratcliffe diplomatic protection in March 2019, said it was a “very unusual” move. “We must show the world that if you imprison a British citizen on bogus charges, he will pay a heavy price, because Britain is a major player on stage.” Global and intends to remain so.
Iran has announced that it does not recognize Ratcliffe’s British citizenship and the country does not recognize the concept of dual citizenship in general. British officials said that impeded what their consular staff could do to help
