Diary date for October

Our next evening meeting is Wednesday, October 11^th at 7 pm – please save the date and come along.  Our September meeting has been cancelled and the next letter writing morning is on Thursday, October 5^th at The Falcon Hotel 10.00 - 12.)

At the October 11^th meeting we are very pleased that Alex Loftus, a relative of Nazanin Zachari-Ratcliffe, will be our speaker.  Last winter Nazanin featured in the ‘Write for Rights’ campaign and our Group sent her dozens of cards.  We have also written to our MP, the Government, and the Iranian authorities, seeking Nazanin’s immediate release.  Amnesty considers Nazanin to be a political prisoner.

Background to Nazanin’s case: In spring 2016 Nazanin was charged with “belonging to an illegal group” when stopped at Tehran Airport, along with her daughter, Gabriella, as they were about to return to the UK.  She was subsequently sentenced to five years imprisonment, spending the first 45 days in solitary confinement.    The charge was made in connection to her work at the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), a charity organisation promoting socio-economic progress, independent journalism and the rule of law, and her past work at BBC’s Media Action.  Her daughter remains in Iran with Nazanin’s parents and visits prison twice a week to see “mummy”.