LONDON: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed details of her five years of torture in the Iranian prison system to independent investigators for the first time.
She said she had been subjected to abuse including sensory and sleep deprivation, stress positions, and prolonged isolation, handcuffing, chaining and blindfolding.
Doctors diagnosed “serious and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and obsessive compulsive disorder” after an evaluation conducted by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.
In the full report revealed to The Times, investigators concluded that the mother-of-one has no chance for recovery unless she returns home for treatment.
The report — which uses UN standards for the assessment of torture — also revealed that she had been subjected to almost nine months of solitary confinement, and bombardment with bright lights and blaring TV to deprive her of sleep.
“They kept the lights on the whole time so you could not tell the difference between day and night. It was just the call to prayers that gave you a sense but otherwise you did not know,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said.
“In the bathroom there was a dripping sound. There was drip, drip, drip the whole time. They would put the TV on the whole time, very loud. They would not let me turn it off, turn it down.”
She was subjected to regular interrogations that could last as long as eight hours throughout that time, during which Iranian security forces threatened her with executions, and said they would torture her family or permanently take her daughter from her.
Most cruel and effective, said doctors, were the threats that she would never see her daughter again.
One of the female guards had a baby daughter a year younger than Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s child, and would call to speak to her in baby voices right outside her cell. “I dreaded her shifts as I knew she would do that to torture me,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said.
Dr. Michele Heisler, a world-renowned expert on the assessment and treatment of torture, said: “This tactic of using your children is one we see used on women. It is a type of torture that is unfortunately found to be effective.”
Heisler, one of the two forensic experts who examined her, added: “Her treatment, as a whole, amounts to torture, under international standards. It has been going on for five years and is continuing. She hasn’t been able to heal without reunification with her family. If she has a chance of recovery she needs to be in a safe environment.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is under house arrest in Tehran, was sentenced to five years in jail in April 2016 for plotting to overthrow the regime — charges she vehemently denies.
Her sentence ended in early March, but she remains under house arrest and her fate remains unclear after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leveled new charges against her. She faces another court hearing on Sunday for allegedly spreading propaganda.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said: “Although she’s now technically free she wouldn’t go anywhere. She’s certainly being followed and the anxiety will take a long time to go away.” He added: “She remains in harm’s way until she’s on a plane.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “Iran continues to put Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe through a cruel and intolerable ordeal. Nazanin must be allowed to return permanently to her family in the UK and we will continue to do all we can to achieve this.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe reveals details of torture in Iranian prison
https://arab.news/cv8us
Zaghari-Ratcliffe reveals details of torture in Iranian prison
- Doctors have diagnosed serious and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and OCD
- UK Foreign Office: Tehran continues to put her “through a cruel and intolerable ordeal”
Syrian army pushes into Aleppo district after Kurdish groups reject withdrawal
- Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force
ALEPPO, Syria: The Syrian army said it would push into the last Kurdish-held district of Aleppo city on Friday after Kurdish groups there rejected a government demand for their fighters to withdraw under a ceasefire deal.
The violence in Aleppo has brought into focus one of the main faultlines in Syria as the country tries to rebuild after a devastating war, with Kurdish forces resisting efforts by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government to bring their fighters under centralized authority.
At least nine civilians have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes in Aleppo, where Kurdish forces are trying to cling on to several neighborhoods they have run since the early days of the war, which began in 2011.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Standoff pits government against Kurdish forces
• Sharaa says Kurds are ‘fundamental’ part of Syria
• More than 140,000 have fled homes due to unrest
• Turkish, Syrian foreign ministers discuss Aleppo by phone
ِA ceasefire was announced by the defense ministry overnight, demanding the withdrawal of Kurdish forces to the Kurdish-held northeast. That would effectively end Kurdish control over the pockets of Aleppo that Kurdish forces have held.
CEASEFIRE ‘FAILED,’ SECURITY OFFICIALS SAY
But in a statement, Kurdish councils that run Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiyah districts said calls to leave were “a call to surrender” and that Kurdish forces would instead “defend their neighborhoods,” accusing government forces of intensive shelling.
Hours later, the Syrian army said that the deadline for Kurdish fighters to withdraw had expired, and that it would begin a military operation to clear the last Kurdish-held neighborhood of Sheikh Maksoud.
Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force.
The Syrian defense ministry had earlier carried out strikes on parts of Sheikh Maksoud that it said were being used by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to launch attacks on the “people of Aleppo.” It said on Friday that SDF strikes had killed three army soldiers.
Kurdish security forces in Aleppo said some of the strikes hit a hospital, calling it a war crime. The defense ministry disputed that, saying the structure was a large arms depot and that it had been destroyed in the resumption of strikes on Friday.
It posted an aerial video that it said showed the location after the strikes, and said secondary explosions were visible, proving it was a weapons cache.
Reuters could not immediately verify the claim.
The SDF is a powerful Kurdish-led security force that controls northeastern Syria. It says it withdrew its fighters from Aleppo last year, leaving Kurdish neighborhoods in the hands of the Kurdish Asayish police.
Under an agreement with Damascus last March the SDF was due to integrate with the defense ministry by the end of 2025, but there has been little progress.
FRANCE, US SEEK DE-ESCALATION
France’s foreign ministry said it was working with the United States to de-escalate.
A ministry statement said President Emmanuel Macron had urged Sharaa on Thursday “to exercise restraint and reiterated France’s commitment to a united Syria where all segments of Syrian society are represented and protected.”
A Western diplomat told Reuters that mediation efforts were focused on calming the situation and producing a deal that would see Kurdish forces leave Aleppo and provide security guarantees for Kurds who remained.
The diplomat said US envoy Tom Barrack was en route to Damascus. A spokesperson for Barrack declined to comment. Washington has been closely involved in efforts to promote integration between the SDF — which has long enjoyed US military support — and Damascus, with which the United States has developed close ties under President Donald Trump.
The ceasefire declared by the government overnight said Kurdish forces should withdraw by 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday, but no one withdrew overnight, Syrian security sources said.
Barrack had welcomed what he called a “temporary ceasefire” and said Washington was working intensively to extend it beyond the 9 a.m. deadline. “We are hopeful this weekend will bring a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue,” he wrote on X.
TURKISH WARNING
Turkiye views the SDF as a terrorist organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and has warned of military action if it does not honor the integration agreement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on Thursday, expressed hope that the situation in Aleppo would be normalized “through the withdrawal of SDF elements.”
Though Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander who belongs to the Sunni Muslim majority, has repeatedly vowed to protect minorities, bouts of violence in which government-aligned fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze have spread alarm in minority communities over the last year.
The Kurdish councils in Aleppo said Damascus could not be trusted “with our security and our neighborhoods,” and that attacks on the areas aimed to bring about displacement.
Sharaa, in a phone call with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Friday, affirmed that the Kurds were “a fundamental part of the Syrian national fabric,” the Syrian presidency said.
Neither the government nor the Kurdish forces have announced a toll of casualties among their fighters from the recent clashes.
