BICOM

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is planning to start a hunger strike later this month to protest against the Iranian authorities refusal to provide her with proper medical treatment.

Ratcliffe was imprisoned in Tehran after being convicted of espionage. She announced her hunger strike in a joint letter with fellow prisoner, Narges Mohammadi, who is serving a 16 year sentence after being found guilty of “establishing and running the illegal splinter group Legam,” a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty.

The hunger strike will begin on 14 January and will last for at least three days. Zaghari-Ratcliffe said the strike was in protest to “express our concerns for our health and survival at this denial of specialist treatment”

On Thursday, Richard Ratcliffe told the AFP news agency: “Nazanin is currently 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.”

Last week marked 1,000 days since Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport. She spent her 40th birthday in prison despite renewed calls for her release. Her four-year-old daughter, Gabriella, has been staying with family in Iran.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tweeted yesterday: “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 access to medical care?” In November 2018, the Foreign Secretary visited Iran and met Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to request Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release. “If Iran has a policy of detaining dual nationals as a tool of diplomatic leverage then there will be consequences for Iran,” he said at the time.

Hunt’s visit in November was the third high level Government visit to Iran to argue for her release. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited last year and Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt has also met Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family in Tehran.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Iran not to proceed with a series of space-related tests that could disguise a ballistic missile programme. Iran recently announced preparation to launch three satellites, while developing an array of other space-related technology. Pompeo said the plans contravene UN resolutions that prevent Iran from developing inter-continental ballistic missiles.