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Richard Ratcliffe protesting outside the UK Foreign Office
Photo: Hollie Adams / Getty Images
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of the British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was held in Iran, went on a hunger strike outside the British Foreign Office on Sunday.
He wanted to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government to take "responsibility" for the fate of his wife, said Ratcliffe.
A week ago, Zaghari-Ratcliffe failed to appeal a second judgment in Iran.
Ratcliffe, who had already started a hunger strike in 2018, wanted to spend the night in a tent in front of the State Department.
He accused the government of "abandoning" his wife and family.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that Nazanin's case could have been resolved months ago had it not been for other diplomatic agendas," Ratcliffe complained.
Johnson must "take responsibility for it."
Sentenced to five years in prison
The Zaghari-Ratcliffe case has weighed on diplomatic relations between Iran and Great Britain for years.
The now 43-year-old project manager was arrested in 2016 while on vacation in Iran.
The Iranian authorities accused her of taking part in anti-government protests seven years earlier.
A court sentenced her to five years in prison for conspiracy to overthrow.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe had always denied the allegations.
At that time she was working as a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A week ago, she lost her appeal against an April verdict in which she was again found guilty of propaganda allegations and sentenced to one year in prison, as well as a one-year ban on leaving the country.
It is currently unclear when Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be arrested again.
The second trial began just a week after she finished her five-year sentence.
lau / AFP
