Mother jailed in Iran taken to prison clinic after blacking out

JAILED CHARITY worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, inset with her daughter Gabriella, has been taken to the clinic of the prison where she is being held in Iran after she “blacked out”, her husband said.

Richard Ratcliffe said his wife had suffered successive panic attacks and low blood pressure, adding: “We’re clearly very, very worried.”

He said yesterday: “What I do know is that she had a panic attack yesterday in prison and she had another panic attack today, and today she also blacked out, so today she was taken down to the prison clinic and, as far as I know, that’s where she is still.

“I’ve seen reports saying she’s been taken to an external hospital but I haven’t had those confirmed.”

Mr Ratcliffe earlier said Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had given his wife’s case greater priority than his predecessor, Boris Johnson. He praised Mr Hunt for being “clear and critical” after his wife voluntarily returned to jail following an emotional family reunion over the weekend. The British-Iranian mother was released from Evin prison in Tehran on Thursday and stayed with family outside the capital. Mr Ratcliffe said she spoke on Tuesday of a headache and feeling numbness in her legs and numbness in her right arm, as well as a rash. He said: “She had the panic attack, got taken down to the clinic and they said ... she had very low blood pressure. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, from Hampstead, north London, was sentenced to five years in jail after being accused of spying by Tehran’s Islamist regime, although it produced no evidence for the claim in court. She denies the allegation and said she was on holiday in Iran.