Fears for life of British charity worker ‘unjustly’ held by Iran

A leading human rights organisation has warned that there are fears that a British woman currently being held by the Iranian regime may commit suicide after being held in Iran for more than half a year.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation charity, and has been held by Iran since earlier this year after they detained her at Tehran’s main airport and separated her from her baby girl.

She was held in solitary confinement for 45 days, before being transferred into the general prison population at the notorious Evin prison where many documented human rights abuses have taken place against female prisoners, most of whom have been incarcerated for political reasons.

An Iranian Revolutionary Court, controlled entirely by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a military organisation that positions itself as “guardians” of Iran’s version of Islamic rule, sentenced Zaghari-Ratcliffe to five years in prison in September.

According to the IRGC-controlled courts, that operate separately from and above the main Iranian judiciary, the charity worker was jailed for allegedly participating “in devising and carrying out media and cyber projects aimed at the soft overthrow of the government.”

Amnesty International says that the IRGC is attempting to link Zaghari-Ratcliffe to a group of Iranian bloggers who undertook training courses with the BBC and were subsequently arrested in 2014 despite having committed no violence or criminal offences.

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has said that she has reached “breaking point” as a result of the ordeal she has suffered due to Iran’s incarceration of her following what Amnesty has described as an “unfair trial.”

According to Ratcliffe, his wife’s mental and physical health has deteriorated sharply in recent weeks, and that she is now contemplating suicide.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe began a hunger strike earlier this month, but was convinced to stop it for the sake of her infant daughter.

Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director at Amnesty International, said: “The news of the decline in Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s health is deeply alarming. Her imprisonment on spurious ‘national security’ charges has been utterly unjust.”

“After her arrest, she was separated from her baby daughter and held in solitary confinement for 45 days. Instead of prolonging her pain and suffering, the Iranian authorities must end her ordeal by releasing her immediately and unconditionally.”