The daughter of a British-US national detained in Iran has staged a protest outside the Foreign Office after her hopes were \u2018dashed at the last minute\u2019 by the failure to bring her father home.<\/p>\n
Roxanne Tahbaz said she was led to believe her father, Morad Tahbaz, a wildlife conservationist, would be freed as part of any negotiated deal with Iran alongside Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori.<\/p>\n
Mr Tahbaz, 66, was allowed out of prison on furlough last month, on the same day Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori were freed, only to be later taken back into custody.<\/p>\n
At her protest outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Ms Tahbaz told The Independent: \u201cIt was devastating and paralytic because we\u2019d been waiting for so long for that news, it had been four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe finally had hopes of being reunited as a family, only to have them dashed at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roxanne Tahbaz holds a placard for her father outside the Foreign Office<\/p>\n
(PA Wire)<\/p>\n
The notice of Mr Tahbaz\u2019s furlough came after the UK government agreed, following years of campaigning, to settle their \u00a3400m debt to Iran. But only two days after this news, Mr Tahbaz was taken back to Evin Prison.<\/p>\n
Ms Tahbaz said her mother, Vida, had also been placed under a travel ban by the authorities in Iran.<\/p>\n
She hoped her protest would encourage action from the foreign secretary Liz Truss to bring back her parents.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI want her to keep her promise, I want her to bring my parents home. Anything shy of that is not enough.\u201d <\/p>\n
The FCDO is working with Mr Tahbaz\u2019s sister-in-law, while in Tehran the British ambassador to Iran is in contact with his wife, Mrs Tahbaz.<\/p>\n
Ms Tahbaz said: \u201cWe really hope that Liz Truss has heard our pleas \u2013 all we want is for her to bring our father home. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re delighted for Nazanin and Anoosheh \u2013\u00a0we\u2019re truly happy for them that they\u2019ve been reunited with their families. But my father has been abandoned \u2013 it isn\u2019t right, it\u2019s a devastating betrayal and it must be put right.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur parents must be brought home, urgently and without conditions \u2013\u00a0we need to be reunited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to sit down with the foreign secretary and her officials to really understand the government\u2019s plan for getting my father home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morad Tahbaz was arrested during a crackdown on environmental activists in Iran <\/p>\n
(Morad Tahbaz\/Facebook)<\/p>\n
Her father, who also has Iranian citizenship, was arrested in January 2018 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison alongside his colleagues on charges of spying for the US and undermining Iran\u2019s security.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International UK have today launched their \u2018No One Left Behind\u2019 campaign, which calls for increased efforts from the government to secure the release of all British nationals, like Mr Tahbaz, arbitrarily detained in Iran.<\/p>\n
Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, told The Independent: \u201cMy message to Liz Truss is very clear: no one should be left behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fantastic to see Nazanin and Anoosheh home, but that should be a clear reminder that the attention and focus that the Foreign Office and the government were giving to the cases of British nationals need to stay at the same level.<\/p>\n
Roxanne Tahbaz and Sacha Deshmukh protest outside the Foreign Office, as Amnesty International launched new \u2018No One Left Behind\u2019 campaign <\/p>\n
(Maggie Left\/Amnesty International)<\/p>\n
\u201cNazanin and Anoosheh put into focus the injustice for those nationals who are still there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis should be the absolute central focus of UK-Iranian relations and the focus of everyone in the British government, from ministers and officials at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FCDO have said they are working with the US, where Mr Tahbaz is also a citizen, to secure his permanent release, as well as pushing for the release of another UK national Mehran Raoof.<\/p>\n
Roxanne with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Richard Ratcliffe at a press conference in March<\/p>\n
(PA Wire)<\/p>\n
An FCDO spokesperson said: \u201cThe Iranian government committed to releasing Morad from prison on an indefinite furlough. Iran has failed to honour that commitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cContinuing his horrendous ordeal sends a clear message to the international community that Iran does not honour its commitments. We continue to urge the Iranian authorities at every opportunity to release him immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The daughter of a British-US national detained in Iran has staged a protest outside the Foreign Office after her hopes were \u2018dashed at the last minute\u2019 by the failure to bring her father home. Roxanne Tahbaz said she was led to believe her father, Morad Tahbaz, a wildlife conservationist, would be freed as part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n