Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe transferred from prison to mental ward in Iran, husband says

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British mother jailed in Iran, has been transferred to a mental ward, her husband said.

Richard Ratcliffe said she was transferred from Evin prison to the mental ward at Iman Khomeini hospital, in Tehran, earlier this week, where she is being held under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport while travelling with their young daughter in April 2016 and sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spying - a charge she vehemently denies.

Her father said he visited the hospital on Tuesday but was not allowed to see his daughter and that she has not been allowed to contact her family.

Before she was transferred, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe told relatives: “I was healthy and happy when I came to Iran to see my parents. Three and a bit years later and I am admitted to a mental health clinic. Look at me now, I ended up in an asylum. It should be an embarrassment.

“Prison is getting harder and harder for me. I hate being played in the middle of a political game. I just hate it.”

The Free Nazanin Campaign said it was not known what treatment she is receiving or how long she is expected to remain in hospital.

The transfer comes after Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe went on hunger strike for 15 days last month in protest at her imprisonment.

Mr Ratcliffe did not eat for the same period in solidarity with his wife as he camped on the pavement outside the Iranian Embassy in London.

The couple’s five-year-old daughter has stayed in Iran with her grandparents since her mother’s arrest.

Mr Ratcliffe said: “Nazanin hoped that her hunger strike would move the Iranian authorities, and it clearly has. Hopefully her transfer to hospital means that she is getting treatment and care, despite my distrust of just what pressures can happen behind closed doors. It is unnerving when we don’t know what is going on.”

“I am glad her dad has been down there to keep vigil outside,” he added. “Mental hospital has its worries at the best of times – but particularly when kept isolated and under the control of the Revolutionary Guard. Even now it still seems like games of power and control are being played by the Iranian authorities – even at the point of hospitalisation.

“We hope again this is the beginning of the end. And yet, we were also here last summer. We will be following up with the new prime minister whenever that is decided to ensure he takes personal responsibility for Nazanin’s case.”

At the end of the dual hunger strike, Mr Ratcliffe said he believed the protest had been successful in raising the profile of his wife’s case, with more than 100 MPs coming to show support to him in person, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Earlier this year, the foreign secretary and Tory leadership hopeful Jeremy Hunt granted Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection in a bid to resolve her case.

In a 2017 gaffe, his predecessor and rival to become prime minister Boris Johnson, said Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran “teaching people journalism” – despite her family’s insistence she was there to visit relatives.

He has repeatedly said the responsibility for her continued detention lies with the Revolutionary Guard.

Ellie Kennedy, Amnesty International UK‘s individuals at risk campaigner, said: “Yet again, the fear must be that the Iranian authorities are playing games with Nazanin’s health and well-being. The fact that this has been done without her family’s involvement suggests the real motive may be more to do with exerting pressure on Britain, rather than providing Nazanin with treatment.

“We know from other cases, that the Iranian prison authorities will sometimes use a range of pressuring techniques with prisoners, often designed to coerce false confessions or sometimes simply to punish them further.”

She added: “After all she and her family have been through, the time really has come for the Tehran authorities to bring this to an end, to release her and let her travel back to the UK with her daughter Gabriella.”