Jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe taken to psychiatric ward

A British-Iranian mother jailed in Tehran since 2016 on sedition charges has been transferred to the mental ward of a hospital in Tehran, her family announced Wednesday.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was transferred from Evin prison to Imam Khomeini hospital on Monday, where her father confirmed she is being held by the Revolutionary Guard, according to a statement from the Free Nazanin campaign.

“It is unknown how long Nazanin is expected to be in the psychiatric ward. It is not clear what kind of medical treatment will be provided,” it said.

A psychiatrist recently recommended that she be “instantly hospitalised due to her sharp deterioration since her previous meeting, and the risk of her taking matters into her own hands”, added the statement.

“I was healthy and happy when I came to Iran to see my parents,” she was quoted as saying by her family.

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“Three and a bit years later and I am admitted to a mental health clinic. Look at me now – I ended up in an asylum. It should be an embarrassment.”

The 40-year-old recently ended a 15-day hunger strike held to mark her daughter Gabriella’s fifth birthday. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe did the same.

“Nazanin hoped that her hunger strike would move the Iranian authorities, and it clearly has,” he said.

“Hopefully, her transfer to hospital means that she is getting treatment and care, despite my distrust of just what pressures can happen behind closed doors. It is unnerving when we don’t know what is going on.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 as she was leaving Iran after taking then 22-month-old Gabriella to visit her family.

She was sentenced to five years for allegedly trying to topple the Iranian government.

A project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the media group’s philanthropic arm, she denies all charges.

In 2016, a UN working group said it considered Zaghari-Ratcliffe to have been arbitrarily detained.

The case has added to long-standing tensions between Tehran and London, which is a major arms supplier to Iran’s arch-enemy Saudi Arabia.

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Earlier this year, the current foreign secretary and Tory leadership hopeful, Jeremy Hunt, granted Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection in a bid to resolve her case.

Tensions between the two countries, already heightened, have increased yet further recently.

Earlier this month, Royal Marines helped seize an Iranian supertanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria off the coast of Gibraltar.

Last week, three Iranian boats tried to intercept a British oil tanker in the Gulf before being driven off by a Royal Navy warship.

Other Iranian dual nationals jailed in Iran include Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer, who are serving 10-year sentences for espionage in a case that has outraged Washington.

Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University researcher, is serving a 10-year sentence for espionage, and US national Michael White, 46, was this year also sentenced to 10 years.

On Tuesday, Iran confirmed that it had arrested a well-known French-Iranian academic without giving any details of her case.

The detention of Fariba Adelkhah, 60, risks increasing tension between Paris and Tehran at a critical moment in efforts to save a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

Additional reporting by The Guardian and Reuters