Iran tried to turn Nazanin into a spy, says husband
THE British mother jailed in Iran on spying charges was told she would be freed if she spied on the UK for her captors, it was revealed yesterday
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said her interrogators asked her to spy on the Government and anti-censorship campaigners.
But the 40-year-old charity worker, who began a three-day hunger strike yesterday after being denied medical care, refused their demands.
Her husband said: ‘What really pushed her over the edge was they tried to make her become a spy for Iran against the UK. She was told it would be safer for her and safer for her family afterwards if she agreed. She has been terrified ever since.’
The British-Iranian mother-ofone has spent 1,000 days in jail. She received a five-year term in 2016 after being accused of spying. Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt summoned the Iranian ambassador for the first time over the case, and is said to be considering giving her diplomatic protection.
He tweeted: ‘Her detention is TOTALLY unacceptable and her treatment... is a fundamental breach of human rights.’
She is fasting to protest against Iran’s refusal to treat lumps in her breasts. She has a family history of breast cancer, but officials refused an Iranian doctor’s request for an examination.
A Foreign Office spokesman said Mr Hunt will call for her to be given immediate health care, ‘and for her and other innocent British-Iranian dual nationals to be released’.
‘A fundamental breach of rights’