British mother in hunger strike after 1,000 days in Iranian prison
THE British mother jailed in Iran for supposed spying has said she will go on hunger strike in protest at her captors’ ‘inhuman’ denial of medical care.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian charity worker who has spent more than 1,000 days in jail in Tehran, said she will strike for three days later this month.
The mother-of-one, 40, has been denied treatment for lumps in her breasts, neck pain and numbness in her arms and legs. She has also been forbidden from seeing an external psychiatrist.
Writing from Evin prison, she said she will protest alongside prominent human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who is serving a 16-year sentence for her campaigning work, to demand access to a doctor.
In a letter published by Tehran-based charity the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said both of them had been denied medical care despite ‘frequent requests’. She wrote: ‘In protest to this illegal, inhuman and unlawful behaviour, and to express our concerns for our health and survival at this denial of specialist treatment, despite taking daily medicines, we will go on hunger strike from 14.01.2019 to 16.01.2019… we announce that in the event of the authority’s failure to address these concerns and them further endangering our health, we will take further action.’
In response, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who met her family last month, wrote on Twitter: ‘Nazanin is innocent and must be allowed to come home. How can the Iranian authorities allow an innocent mother to feel she needs to resort to this, simply for justice and
‘She has reached a tipping point’
access to medical care?’ Her husband Richard Ratcliffe, 43, told The Daily Telegraph she had become anxious and depressed.
He said: ‘Nazanin is having medical treatment blocked for lumps in her breasts, for neurological care over her neck pains and numbness in her arms and legs, and seeing an outside psychiatrist has been banned.
‘These are all being personally blocked by the head of Evin clinic, Mr Khani, despite having been approved by the prison doctor.’ Speaking from his home in Hampstead, north London, he said he had spoken to her on Christmas Day, when she sounded ‘flat’.
He added: ‘I think for Nazanin turning 40 [on Boxing Day] and realising she might be kept until she can never have another child has been a real tipping point.’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held by the Revolutionary Guard at Tehran airport after visiting her parents with the couple’s daughter, Gabriella, now four, in April 2016.
She was convicted of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic, a charge she denies, and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Having served half of her sentence, she is eligible for parole, but this has been refused by the authorities.
In August last year she was reunited with family after being granted temporary release for three days.
Her lawyer previously stated that he had filed a request for medical care, but said all of her requests have gone unanswered.