Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘Pressured To Spy On UK’ By Iranian Interrogators, Husband Claims

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed she was encouraged “to spy on the UK” by Iranian interrogators who visited her in prison.

Ministers are under pressure to increase efforts to secure the release of the British-Iranian mother detained in Tehran, as she prepares to begin a three-day hunger strike.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was to start an initial three-day fast on Monday in protest against being denied medical care in Iran’s Evin prison.

The 40-year-old, of Hampstead, north-west London, has been detained for more than 1,000 days, having been accused of spying, a charge she vehemently denies.

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who has long campaigned for her release, said she been refused medical attention for lumps in her breasts, neurological care for pains in her limbs and access to an external psychiatrist.

Ratcliffe said his wife had started the strike after Iranian Revolutionary Guard interrogators on December 29 tried to pressure her into becoming a spy for Iran.

“What really pushed her over the edge was they tried to make her become a spy for Iran against the UK,” he told a press conference on Monday.

Specifically, he said, they wanted her to spy on the Department for International Development and “she was told it would be safer for her and safer for her family afterwards if she agreed to do this”.

Ratcliffe added: “She was told to think about it and that they would return. She had been terrified ever since.”

Human rights charity Redress renewed calls for the government to end her “appalling” treatment by taking “immediate steps to secure her release”, including by granting her diplomatic protection.