Husband of detained UK-Iranian ends hunger strike after three weeks

Richard Ratcliffe believes his spouse is caught in a dispute between the UK and Iran, urges the British government to take steps to settle it.

His latest hunger strike was aimed at highlighting "complacency running through the government strategy".
Reuters

His latest hunger strike was aimed at highlighting "complacency running through the government strategy".

The husband of a British-Iranian dual national held by Tehran has ended his three-week hunger strike aimed at encouraging the British government to strike a deal for her release.

Richard Ratcliffe began his protest outside Britain's foreign ministry in London on October 24 after his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe lost her latest appeal in Iran.

"Today I have promised Nazanin to end the hunger strike," he wrote on the campaign's official Twitter page on Saturday, adding that their daughter "Gabriella needs two parents".

Ratcliffe recently met UK government minister James Cleverly after British officials held talks with Iran's deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani about the situation.

He said on Thursday the protest was entering its final days "because my body is saying so".

READ MORE: Is Iran using an activist's detention to secure $554 million from the UK? 

Dispute between two states

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a visit to her family in Tehran in 2016, convicted of plotting to overthrow the Iranian regime and sentenced to five years in prison.

She was then sentenced to another year's imprisonment in April this year for participating in a rally outside the Iranian embassy in London in 2009.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe lost her appeal in October and her family fear she will return to prison.

Ratcliffe believes his spouse is "caught in a dispute between two states" over a debt of £400 million ($540 million) that London refuses to settle since the Shah of Iran was ousted in 1979.

READ MORE: State TV: Iran, US agree to prisoner swap, release of frozen funds 

READ MORE: Iran rejects 'step-by-step' lifting of US sanctions

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