Jailed Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being mentally “tortured” by Iranian officials ahead of her court fight on Sunday, her husband has claimed.
A Tehran judge will decide whether she should face new propaganda charges just seven days after her previous five-year term for spying – a charge she has always denied – ended.
Husband Richard Ratcliffe said tonight: “The uncertainty is torturous, we’re talking open-ended detention. It leaves her fearing she’ll never get out.
“The fear is not being taken back to normal prison, the fear is being taken back to torture.”
Aid worker Nazanin, who has dual British/Iranian citizenship, was held in Tehran in 2016 during a visit to her parents with daughter Gabriella.
The 43-year-old was accused of plotting to overthrow the regime.
This week, Nazanin told independent investigators she was threatened with execution and the torture of her family.
She also said she was chained and blindfolded in prison – and suffered sensory and sleep deprivation.
And she said she was interrogated for nine hours at a time in solitary and bombarded with bright lights and blaring TVs.
Richard says Nazanin, who spent a week in a psychiatric hospital chained to the bed in 2018, was even left suicidal.
She was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Richard said: “At points she has felt suicidal and thought the only way to protect her family was to no longer be here.
"She can’t control her anxiety. She wakes up in the night with uncontrollable pains and a really fast heartbeat.
“I don’t think the British government has done nearly a good enough job protecting her or the others from torture or trauma.”
Richard has asked for Britain’s ambassador, Rob Macaire, to accompany Nazanin in court and believes she is a “bargaining chip” in a £400million dispute between the UK and Iran.
He said: “The Iranians are keeping the jeopardy hanging over Nazanin while they decide if they’re going to get the money off the Brits or not. And if they’re not, we get the punishment.”
This week, PM Boris Johnson demanded Nazanin’s “immediate release” in a call with Iran’s president. The Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office are reportedly at loggerheads over a “debt” from a 1970s arms deal.
The then Shah of Iran ordered and paid for 1,750 tanks and support vehicles from a firm owned by the MoD – but the deal was halted after he was deposed and Britain kept the money. The MoD is said to fear the cash going to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has likened the debt to “ransom money” for Nazanin.
The UK and Iran deny there is a link between the two issues – but Iranian regime hardliners reportedly expect the deal to be settled before Nazanin is freed.
