An open letter to His Excellency Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei regarding Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from Jessica Learmond-Criqui.

Your Excellency,

I am writing to you with great respect and appealing to you as a fellow human being.

I write in relation to the condition and circumstance of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

I am a lawyer and a national of the United Kingdom as well as a resident in North West London in the same neighbourhood in which Nazanin lives/ lived with her husband and young daughter before being detained and imprisoned in Evin prison earlier last year.

Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, visited Iran last weekend for talks with your Foreign Minister about a possible consideration in relation to the release of Nazanin.

The reason for writing is to appeal to you, and your great influence, in assisting with the release of Nazanin as a gesture of humanity and empathy to all mankind on, before or around Shab-e Challeh.

As Iran’s Supreme Leader, it would be a significant and positive gift to arrange for her release at this special and meaningful time.

On Shab-e Chelleh Nazanin will have spent 634 days in Evin prison away from her husband and small daughter.

This denies the human rights of a loving family and I know that you appreciate the idea of human rights being a fundamental principle which is core and underlies throughout all Islamic teachings.

It would be tragic to deny her religious and human rights in not being able to celebrate and cherish this festival with her family and I would entreat you to grant her the ability to do so.

May God and his emissary, the Prophet Muhammad, keep the Iranian nation safe and bless you and your steps of wisdom in the many years to come.

Yours sincerely,

Jessica Learmond-Criqui