Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will seek assurances from the government of Iran that Nazanin Ratcliffe will be granted access to a lawyer and due process rights.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We regularly lobby the Iranian government on all of our consular cases; requesting consular access for our officials, and to ensure that they have access to lawyers and are receiving appropriate medical care. Most recently the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the issue with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif on 17 May, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), raised the subject with the Iranian Charge d’Affaires in London on 18 May. The Iranian government do not recognise dual nationals of any country, therefore we cannot gain direct access to dual nationals held in custody.