Nazanin release gives fresh hope to family of imprisoned Dumbarton man

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The brother of a Dumbarton man who has been imprisoned in India for over four years has told of his new hope after a meeting was secured with the Foreign Secretary.Gurpreet Singh Johal hopes the talks with Liz Truss will help the plight of his brother Jagtar Singh Johal, 35, who is accused of involvement in terror offences, which he vigorously denies.They say he has never been formally charged and are awaiting the outcome of “crucial” court hearings next month which they say could result in him being discharged from cases.The meeting was secured by West Dunbartonshire MP Martin Docherty-Hughes following the return home to the UK of British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who had been detained in Iran for six years.She was detained at Tehran Airport in 2016 and accused of attempting to overthrow the Iranian Government, a charge she has always denied.Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement afterwards that she made resolving the continued detention of British nationals one of her “top priorities” when entering office in September last year.Gurpreet says the case has also given him hope, telling the Lennox Herald: “It’s been brilliant hearing of Nazanin being released.“It shouldn’t have taken as long as this.“Given it’s nearly 1600 days since Jagtar was arbitrarily detained the UK Government has not been calling for his release which they have been doing for Nazanin.“We want to know exactly what they have been doing.“We have made various requests for meetings with previous foreign secretaries but none of them have agreed so welcome this meeting and we are looking forward to hearing what she is going to tell us.“Martin Docherty-Hughes has taken every opportunity to raise Jagtar’s case in parliament and we