Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Family of British-Iranian says Tehran demanded $35,000 for his release

2022-03-20

[IsraelTimes] Anoosheh Ashoori, tossed in the slammer
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
for 10 years on charges of spying for Israel, was freed alongside compatriot Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after UK reached deal with Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
over historic debt.

The family of a UK-Iranian man freed this week after spending five years in a Tehran jail were forced to pay Iran £27,000 ($35,600) in order to secure his return home, they said Saturday.

Anoosheh Ashoori, a retired engineer from southeast London, was arrested in 2017 and tossed in the slammer
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
for 10 years on charges of spying for Israel.

He flew home on Wednesday having been released along with compatriot Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after Britannia reached a deal with Tehran over a historic military contract debt.

But his release was only secured after the family were able to meet a last-minute demand to pay a fine, they said.

"On March 14th, Dad’s conditional release was signed and communicated to us," the family wrote on fundraising site Crowdfunder.

"We had been waiting for 5 years for Dad to come home and were suddenly told that the only thing now stopping this... was an arbitrary £27,000 fine which we suddenly had to pay," they added.

"We had less than 12 hours to raise the money, taking out loans using our credit cards, and opening new accounts," Ashoori’s wife, Sherry Izadi, told The Guardian in comments published Saturday.

"My only thought was: ’How are we going to do this in time?'"

The Crowdfunder appeal had already raised more than £33,000 on Saturday, £6,000 above the target.

FATE OF THIRD PRISONER UNCLEAR
The families of both Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori believe they were being held as political prisoners until the historic debt was settled.

The final deal was reached "after highly complex and exhaustive negotiations," UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

The fate of a third British-Iranian held in Tehran was on Saturday unclear.

Truss announced on Wednesday that Morad Tahbaz, who also holds US nationality, has been released from prison "on furlough" to his Tehran home.

But relatives said he had been taken back to Evin prison after only 48 hours at his family home in Tehran.

The UK Foreign Office said that he had gone to the prison to have an ankle tag fitted, but had yet to give an update on whether he had been returned.

The ministry said Iran would be in breach of its commitments if the 69-year-old conservationist was kept in jail.

Posted by:trailing wife

#3 That’s in addition to the £400 million the British government paid, a long-owed reimbursement for tanks ordered by the Shah that were not delivered to the Mad Mullahs, Glenmore.

Posted by: trailing wife 2022-03-20 09:47

#2 they may get multi billions from the UK based on a cancelled arms deal late in the Shah era

Posted by: Lord Garth 2022-03-20 09:38

#1 That's cheap. They didn't even recoup their expenses.

Posted by: Glenmore 2022-03-20 09:20

00:00