Free Nazanin campaign urges UK sanctions on 10 Iranian officials 'linked to hostage-taking'

Activists are marking Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s 2,000th day of detention in Iran by demanding that Britain impose sanctions on 10 Iranian officials accused of involvement in hostage-taking.

The demand is the Free Nazanin campaign’s first call for sanctions on individual officials over the British-Iranian dual national’s imprisonment.

The campaign’s call comes ahead of new UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’ meeting with her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, at the United Nations in New York later this week.

“Iran conducts its diplomatic business through hostage-taking, in part because it is cost-free,” Richard Ratlcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

“British citizens will not be protected from hostage-taking by words and soundbites, but by actions that cause the perpetrators to reassess their calculations, and consider the personal costs – for their role in what is a serial organised crime,” he added.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been held in Iran since April 2016, when she was arrested while travelling there to visit family.

Despite having completed her initial five-year sentence for “plotting to topple the Iranian government”, she has been refused permission to return home.

Thursday will mark Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s 2000th day in detention.