Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Jailed British-Iranian Aid Worker in Iran Starts Hunger Strike, Husband Says

Reuters

   LONDON - A British-Iranian aid worker jailed in Tehran has begun a
   hunger strike to demand release, her husband said Saturday, adding he
   would support her by fasting outside Iran's embassy in London.

   Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters
   Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she
   headed back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.

   She was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of
   plotting to overthrow Iran's clerical establishment, a charge denied by
   her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that operates
   independently of Thomson Reuters and Reuters News.

   "Today I received a phone call from Nazanin in prison. She had informed
   the judiciary that she has begun a new hunger strike -- she will drink
   water -- to protest at her continuing unfair imprisonment," her
   husband, Richard, said in a statement.

   "Today she sounded nervous, but calm. Her demand from the strike, she
   said, is for unconditional release. She has long been eligible for it."

.