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Ratcliffe Says his Wife’s Detention is a Bargaining Chip for Iran

Richard Ratcliffe during his hunger strike in front of the Iranian embassy in London in 2019 (Getty Images)
Richard Ratcliffe during his hunger strike in front of the Iranian embassy in London in 2019 (Getty Images)
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Ratcliffe Says his Wife’s Detention is a Bargaining Chip for Iran

Richard Ratcliffe during his hunger strike in front of the Iranian embassy in London in 2019 (Getty Images)
Richard Ratcliffe during his hunger strike in front of the Iranian embassy in London in 2019 (Getty Images)

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has accused Tehran of practicing hostage diplomacy, saying that his wife has become a bargaining chip between the UK and Iran.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Ratcliffe revealed that Iran is seeking to prevent his wife's release at the end of her sentence next March, or at least to threaten it.

Authorities in Tehran are charging Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual national, with a new wave of accusations to justify holding her in detention for additional time.

In early November, she appeared before a judge to defend herself against “charges of spreading propaganda against the regime,” but the trial was adjourned before Zaghari-Ratcliffe could present her defense and without a clear scheduling of the next hearing.

“It is formally a new charge but the same file as used against her last time. So it is double jeopardy,” he explained to Asharq Al-Awsat.

“We’ve seen other cases where a new file of accusations is brought in midway through, particularly when the case is suddenly adjourned as happened to us last hearing, so we will only know what they convict her of when they tell us,” he said.

Ratcliffe, who has been leading a fierce campaign for his wife's release for four years, considered that the purpose of the new case “is to prevent her release at the end of her sentence next March, or at least to threaten it.”

“The court process is just a veneer to provide a legal framework for hostage taking and justify holding her for as long as they want.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she headed back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.

She was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment.

Gabriella, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s daughter, was reunited with her father in the UK on October 10, 2019.

As for Zaghari-Ratcliffe, she received a conditioned release from Evin prison in March 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic but remains under house arrest.

Iranian authorities have told her she will return to Evin prison following the hearings, which have been delayed.

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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)

A huge power outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, paralyzing traffic, grounding flights, trapping people in elevators and leaving power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.

Some hospitals halted routine work and the two countries' governments convened emergency cabinet meetings, with officials initially saying a possible cyber-attack could not be ruled out. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe, and the cause could not immediately be established.

Reuters witnesses said power had started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas of Spain in the early afternoon, a few hours after the outage began. It was not clear when power might be more widely restored.

Hospitals in Madrid and Cataluna in Spain suspended all routine medical work but were still attending to critical patients, using backup generators. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and retail businesses shut.

The Bank of Spain said electronic banking was functioning "adequately" on backup systems, though residents also reported ATM screens had gone blank.

"I'm in a data center, and everything has gone off. All the alarms popped up, and now we're with the groups, waiting to find out what happened," said Barcelona resident and engineer Jose Maria Espejo, 40.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged city residents to minimize their journeys and stay where they were, adding: "It is essential that the emergency services can circulate."

In Portugal, water supplier EPAL said water supplies could also be disrupted, and queues formed at stores by people rushing to purchase emergency supplies like gaslights, generators and batteries.

The main Portuguese electricity utility, EDP, said it had told customers it had no forecast for when the energy supply would be "normalized", Publico newspaper said. It warned it could take several hours.

Parts of France also suffered a brief outage. RTE, the French grid operator, said it had moved to supplement power to some parts of northern Spain after the outage hit.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

TRAFFIC JAMS

Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams in Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.

One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.

Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.

Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Lisbon's subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.

A source at Portugal's TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Such widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003 a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and as far as Morocco.