the times | Tuesday May 24 2022 9
News
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed
that she was watched by a British
official as she signed a “false confes-
sion” shortly before leaving Iran.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, described the
incident as a “dehumanising” ordeal,
carried out “under duress in the
presence of the British government”.
She returned to the UK in March
after six years of detention at the same
time as the government agreed to settle
a decades-old £400 million debt to Iran.
Speaking about her imprisonment in
an interview with the BBC’s Emma
Barnett, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she
could not believe that she would be fly-
ing home “until I got on the plane”.
The British-Iranian citizen, who was
detained on charges of espionage from
2016 until her release, added: “I was
taken by the Revolutionary Guards to
the airport. I did not see my parents.
Instead I was made to sign the forced
confession at the airport in the
presence of the British government.”
She was warned by Iranian officials
Change afoot
as William
appears on
first solo coin
Debbie White
British official watched me sign false
confession at airport, claims Nazanin
Debbie White
Henry Zeffman Associate Political Editor
that she “won’t be able to get on the
plane. And I knew that that was like a
last-minute game because... they told
me they have been given the money. So
what is the point of making me sign a
piece of paper which is incorrect? It’s a
false confession.”
The charity project manager was
arrested in April 2016 after visiting her
parents in Iran with her daughter,
Gabriella, who was then 21 months old.
She was detained for six years in total,
having been initially sentenced to five
years for plotting to overthrow the
Iranian government. Last year she was
sentenced to a further year for spread-
ing propaganda against Iran.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe told Barnett
that the “forced confession” would
enable Iran to “show how scary
they are and the desperation of
people. It’s a tool [of power]. So
I’m sure they will show that
someday.”
She criticised the false con-
fession as “propaganda forthe Iranian regime, adding that it was
“dehumanising.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe believes that her
detention was prolonged by Boris
Johnson who, as foreign secretary in
2017, told MPs that Zaghari-Ratcliffe
had been “teaching people journalism”
in Iran. The comment was seized on by
the Iranian authorities as evidence that
she was conducting espionage in the
country.
In a meeting in Downing Street
earlier this month Johnson did not
apologise to Zaghari-Ratcliffe for the
episode. However, she told the BBC
that the prime minister instead admit-
ted that her case was tied to the UK’s
historic debt, which related to an
abandoned deal to sell tanks to
Iran.
When Zaghari-Ratcliffe was
released in March Liz Truss,
the foreign secretary, said the
debt had been settled only “in
parallel” with her
release.
However, asked
what Johnson said
in private, Za-ghari-Ratcliffe said: “He did mention
— he said that it was about the debt.”
She continued: “Once I accepted the
fact, that is what it is. There is very little
I can do to change it. I had to come to
terms with what had happened to me.”
Tulip Siddiq, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s MP,
called for Truss to answer “serious
questions” about the forced confession.
A government spokesman said: “Iran
put Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe through
a horrendous ordeal, right up to the
moment she left the country. Through-
out that time the UK government was
working tirelessly to end her unfair
detention, but it was always in Iran’s gift
to release Nazanin and allow her to
return to her family.
“We urge the government of Iran to
end its practice of unfairly detaining
British and other foreign nationals, and
we will continue to work with inter-
national partners to that end.”
This month her husband Richard
Ratcliffe alluded to “mistakes made at
the end” of the ordeal in Iran. Speaking
after their meeting with Johnson,
Ratcliffe said: “I think there are lessons
to learn, there is a wider problem.”Zaghari-Ratcliffe was freed
in March after six yearsThe Manchester City footballer
Benjamin Mendy has denied nine
sexual offences against six women.
Mendy, 27, stood in the dock at Ches-
ter crown court yesterday and said “not
guilty” as each charge was put to him. It
is the first time he has entered pleas.
The France international, who lives
in Prestbury, Cheshire, denies seven
charges of rape, one of sexual assault
and one of attempted rape. All are
alleged to have taken place at his home
between October 2018 and last August.
His will go on trial on July 25 with
Louis Saha Matturie, 40, of Eccles,
Greater Manchester, who entered not
guilty pleas to eight charges of rape and
four of sexual assault, relating to eight
women and alleged to have taken place
between July 2012 and last August.
Mendy, a defender, joined Manches-
ter City in 2017 from Monaco for
£52 million. He was suspended by the
club in August after police charged him.
Judge Steven Everett released him
and Matturie on bail until the next
hearing.Man City star
denies series
of sex attacks
Laurence SleatorA new £5 coin featuring the Duke of
Cambridge’s portrait has been minted
to mark his 40th birthday on June 21.
It will be the first time Prince Willi-
am, who is second in line to the throne,
has appeared alone on an official coin.
He appeared on a £5 coin alongside the
Duchess of Cambridge to celebrate
their wedding in 2011.
Created by the designer and engraver
Thomas T Docherty, the coin features
William’s portrait set with his royal
cypher — his initial “W” — and the
number 40. The other side will bear the
Queen’s image, designed by Jody Clark,
and an inscription on the edge will read
“HRH The Duke of Cambridge”.
A limited edition two-coin set will be
released alongside the £5 coin, featur-
ing a 0.25oz gold celebration coin and a
sovereign from 1982, the year the duke
was born. Docherty said his design
struck “a balance between the fresh
energy of His Royal Highness being a
young dad with the ceremonial nature
of his royal position”. He added: “A
three-quarter angle of the portrait cre-
ates a more dynamic portrait rather
than a traditional side-on profile. I used
clay sculpting techniques on a digital
platform to achieve the style needed.”
The Royal Mint similarly issued
commemorative coins for the wedding
of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana
Spencer in 1981 and most recently for
Prince Charles’s 70th birthday in 2018.
A royal cover-up, Giles Coren’s
Notebook, page 26
The coin has been
unveiled before
the Duke of
Cambridge’s
birthday on June 21ALUN BULL; JAMES O. DAVIES; CHRIS REDGRAVE/HISTORIC ENGLANDA
modernist
theatre and
markers on the
M62 are among
six sites to be
given protected status in
honour of the Platinum
Jubilee. The Departmentfor Culture, Media and
Sport, with guidance from
Historic England, has listed
the sites, all which which
have been visited or opened
by the Queen as part of
royal tours.
They include the Queen’sTheatre in Hornchurch, east
London, which opened in
the year of the coronation
and was visited by the
Queen in 2003; All Saints
church in Shard End,
Birmingham, one of the
first postwar churches
funded by the War Damage
Commission, which the
Queen visited in 1955; and
the art deco Sun Pavilion
and Colonnade in
Harrogate, North
Yorkshire, which wasreopened by the Queen in
1998 after restoration.
Also acknowledged are
the commemorative
markers on the M62,
Britain’s highest motorway
at 1,221ft (372m), denoting
the white rose of the House
of York and the red rose of
the House of Lancaster.
Being granted protected
status highlights a building,
site or area’s special interest
and value to future
generations and gives itcertain protections under
the law, such as different
planning permission and
advertising rules.
Duncan Wilson, the chief
executive of Historic
England, said: “These new
listings celebrate the
diversity and richness of
our heritage overseen by
Her Majesty during her
70-year reign, showing
how the fabric of the
nation has changed and
developed.”, east reopenedbytheQu i
Queen’s modernistmarvels protected
The Sun Pavilion
and Colonnade in
Harrogate; All
Saints church in
Birmingham and,
below, the
Queen’s Theatre
in Hornchurch