MORE than 60 MPs are calling on Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to urgently grant diplomatic protection to British-Iranian national Anoosheh Ashoori, who has been languishing in a Tehran jail for almost four years. 

Mr Ashoori was arrested by Iranian authorities while visiting his mother in 2017.

His family say he was convicted without evidence and under severe fair-trial violations, proving he is being held hostage by the regime over his dual nationality status. 

They believe the 67-year-old has also contracted Covid-19. 

In a letter to Mr Raab, dozens of MPs are calling for Mr Ashoori to be granted diplomatic status, claiming this would help ministers secure his release as well as being a formal recognition of the human rights abuses he has suffered. 

Mr Ashoori’s wife Sherry Izadi said that her husband’s four-year incarceration has had a “devastating psychological impact on every member of our family,” adding that he has often felt abandoned by the British government. 

“We sincerely hope that Mr Raab will grant Anoosheh diplomatic protection, as has been done before, to demonstrate that no efforts are spared in securing his release,” she said.

The family’s local MP, Janet Daby, who co-ordinated the letter, said that granting Mr Ashoori diplomatic status is the “very least our government can offer him when he has suffered so unfairly and for so long.

“Until he is freed, he must be protected.” 

Mr Ashoori is among several dual-nationals being arbitrarily detained in Iran, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was recently jailed for a further year. 

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s and Mr Ashoori’s families claim that they are being detained as leverage for a £400 million debt that Britain owes Iran. 

The letter urged Mr Raab to treat all jailed dual-nationals equally, following his previous decision to grant Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe protections.