Trump: CIA spy claims are lies
Jailed Nazanin ‘was chained to a hospital bed’
IN HARM’S WAY Crew members are made to sit on the floor after putting their shoes in a pile Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe A BRITISH-Iranian woman jailed in Tehran was back in prison last night after being moved from a mental health ward she described as “proper torture”.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, had been kept in solitary confinement and chained to a hospital bed, according to her husband Richard Ratcliffe.
The mum-of-one, from Hampstead, North London, was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport in April 2016 and sentenced to five years after being accused of spying, which she denies.
She was moved from Evin prison last week to the mental health ward of Iman Khomeini hospital in Tehran on the orders of health authorities.
But she was returned to jail after breaking out of her bindings.
Mr Ratcliffe said his wife told him she was “broken” by the experience.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “They did all they could to me – handcuffs, ankle cuffs, in a private room two metres by three metres, with thick curtains and the door closed all the time.”
It comes as her MP, Tulip Siddiq, demanded answers over claims by former Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan that talks about her release were brought to an “abrupt halt”. DONALD Trump has said there is “zero truth” in Iran’s claims that it captured 17 US-trained spies working for the CIA.
Yesterday Tehran said it had smashed a spy ring of Iranian nationals targeting nuclear, military and cyber facilities, sentencing some of them to death.
After arrests over the past 12 months, others have been handed lengthy jail terms, the Intelligence Ministry claimed.
In response, Mr Trump tweeted: “The report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth.
“Just more lies and propaganda put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do.”
State TV claimed to show the CIA trying to recruit visa applicants and Iranians abroad with promises of money.
Tensions rose after Mr Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. In May and June oil tankers were attacked. And last week Tehran denied downing a US drone in revenge for a similar attack.