The Iranian authorities committed the crime of hostage-taking against British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by holding her in connection with their long-standing debt dispute with the UK, said Amnesty International following a thorough analysis of the circumstances surrounding her six-year detention as well as her March 2022 release in exchange for the payment of £393.8 million by the UK. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ordeal also sheds light on the other dual and foreign nationals who may be used by the Iranian authorities to gain leverage and whose arbitrary detention may also constitute the crime of hostage-taking.
