The Guardian | Patrick Wintour: Government agency using ‘every legal roadblock’ to delay payment of £400m debt

The release of the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held back by a UK government agency engaging in “every legal roadblock to delay and minimise the payment” to Iran of an acknowledged £400m debt, lawyers for her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, have claimed.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was accused of espionage, has been held in a Tehran jail, sometimes in isolation or on hunger strike, since 2016.

The claim about the agency – International Military Services – was made in a letter sent to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, who in his ministerial role has 99% control of IMS. The highly secretive IMS now exists solely as a vehicle to manage a £400m debt that an international court has forced the government to accept it owes to Iran.

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