Roxanne Tahbaz has delivered a Father’s Day card and a gift to the Foreign Office, asking for it to be taken to her imprisoned father in Iran.
Morad Tahbaz, who has family links to Hampstead, is a tri-national who was arrested in Iran in 2018 – along with seven others – and has been jailed for more than four years.
In 2019 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on vague charges of spying for the US and undermining Iran’s security. He has been in prison for 1,618 days.
The 66-year-old's daughter, Roxanne, has accused the UK government of betraying her father.
Roxanne delivered the letter on Thursday (June 16), exactly three months since the release of West Hampstead mum Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori.
Roxanne is renewing her call for the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to meet her to explain what the UK is doing to secure her father’s release.
Her card for Father’s Day – produced for the family by Amnesty International 0 features family photographs and the message: “It Has Been 1,618 Days Since Morad Was With His Family”.
Roxanne said: “Government officials led us to believe that our father would be released alongside Nazanin and Anoosheh three months ago.
“Even the furlough, which was publicly announced by the Foreign Office, has not been upheld, as my father is still deteriorating in prison.
“At this juncture, there is only one way the Foreign Office can regain the faith we once had in our government. They need to urgently renegotiate with the Iranian authorities, and this time ensure they bring our father, and mother, home without delay.”
Jo Atkins-Potts, Amnesty International UK’s Urgent Actions Campaigner, who accompanied Roxanne to the Foreign Office, said: “Shockingly, another Father’s Day is about to come around with Roxanne and her siblings still cruelly separated from their father."
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Iran has failed to honour their commitment to releasing Morad from prison on indefinite furlough. Continuing his horrendous ordeal sends a clear message to the international community that Iran does not honour its commitments.
“We continue to urge the Iranian authorities, at every opportunity, to release him immediately.”
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