TEHRAN – Secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi has criticized the British Government for rejecting the return of a Christian Iranian national, Richard John, and called for his immediate release from jail.
The Iranian national has been in prison for two decades due to some accusations, Gharibabadi said, censuring Britain’s refusal to give him even a day-long furlough or letting him be dispatched to a protected hospital for treatment.
Gharibabadi, who is also the deputy chief of the Judiciary for international affairs, said the Iranian national is not in a good condition in the jail, adding he is even deprived of medical services.
Despite the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s efforts to follow up on his case to return him home, the British side did not take the due measure, the official noted.
Hopeful of being deported to Iran, John gave up his British citizenship years ago. Gharibabadi said the UK did not free him under the pretext that he could be a danger to British nationals.
The official expressed wonder at how John could be a threat to the British nationals when he returns to Iran.
“Now, this is the UK that has put the life of the Iranian national in danger,” Gharibabadi said.
The official touched on John’s inhuman conditions in jail, saying Tehran showed its goodwill in the case of two convicts imprisoned in Iran, He urged the British government to do the same on humanitarian grounds.
Iran in March released Nazanin Zaghari and Anousheh Ashouri, jailed for involvement in espionage activities against the Islamic Republic.
Ashouri, who previously lived in southeast London with his family, was detained in August 2017 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for cooperating with Mossad and two years for obtaining 33,000 euros in “illicit funds” nearly a year later.
Zaghari, 43, had been found guilty of plotting to orchestrate a soft overthrow of the Islamic Republic and has been in jail since 2016.