Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe “told to sign false confession” by UK government

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has told the BBC that Iran forced her to sign a false confession before allowing her to fly home to the UK. She says she did so “under duress” in Iran in the presence of a British official.

Her lawyer has written to the UK Foreign Secretary asking for an explanation of why she was “told to sign a false confession by her own government”.

The British-Iranian national was freed by Iran in March 2022, along with fellow detainee Anoosheh Ashoori, six years after being arrested on spying charges.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe says that the Iranian authorities would not let her board her plane home until she had signed the last-minute false confession.