Daughter of British Iranian detained in Iran calls on UK government to secure his release

The daughter of an American-British-Iranian national detained in Iran protested on Wednesday outside the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for her father's release.

Roxanne Tahbaz, daughter of Morad Tahbaz, called on Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to "bring my dad home", in an attempt to spur the British government into taking action.

She has previously accused the UK of betraying the detainee.

This came four weeks after the release of British Iranian nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, who were able to leave Iran after the UK repaid a £400 million debt owed for undelivered tanks that dated back to the 1970s.

"We really hope that Liz Truss has heard our pleas, all we want is for her to bring our father home... [he] has been abandoned... it's a devastating betrayal and it must be put right," Roxanne said, according to rights group Amnesty International.

Protest by Roxanne Tahbaz outside the Foreign Office who she says have “betrayed” her father, Morad, who is still imprisoned in Iran pic.twitter.com/4vQCgTsaQY

— Sam Hall (@SamLHall_) April 13, 2022

Roxanne added that she was "truly" happy for both Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori's release, but emphasised that detainees remaining in Iran must also be brought home.

Ashoori has said he is unable to "fully savour my freedom while Morad... and others are languishing behind bars after enduring the same travesty of justice" he went through, according to a statement from Amnesty. 

On Wednesday the global human rights launched a "No-One Left Behind" campaign asking the government to increase its efforts to secure "the release of all British nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran".

“The Government’s job is only half-done - Nazanin and Anoosheh are home, but Morad isn’t and neither is Mehran Raoof," Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s CEO, said.

“We’ve launched our... campaign... to keep Morad and Mehran in the public eye... it shouldn’t need a superhuman effort from the families to jolt the Government into taking action on behalf of British nationals who are arbitrarily jailed,” Deshmukh added.

Tahbaz ended a nine-day hunger strike last March, which he began after being excluded from the release deal that saw Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori return to the UK.