­THE health of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, wife of former Farnham man Richard Ratcliffe, who is currently serving a five-year jail sentence in Iran continues to deteriorate.

Nazanin and her daughter Gabriella, aged two, have been detained in Iran for more than 230 days, after the pair had gone there for a two-week holiday in April.

Nazanin, who holds both British and Iranian nationality, was held in solitary confinement and ruthlessly interrogated in a way that left her unable to walk, with Gabriella’s documents also taken there.

Since June, Nazanin has been held in Evin prison, previously described as a “torture chamber”, without access to a lawyer until days before her secret trial in September, where she was sentenced to five years on “secret charges”.

According to husband Richard, he and the government have been given various signals that her charges are political and can be resolved if the government does the right thing.

According to Amnesty International, the Iranian authorities announced earlier this year that her arrest was linked to her involvement with a network of bloggers imprisoned in 2014 for taking part in journalism training courses.

On June 15, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards released a statement accusing Nazanin of attempting to overthrow Iran’s government, Amnesty believes that Nazanin is a “prisoner of conscience who has been imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of her rights to freedom of expression and association”.

Husband Richard notes that for a long time Nazanin has been suffering health concerns – pains in her hands and shoulders, blurred vision, little ability to eat or concentrate, unstoppable palpitations, and feeling less and less able to go on.

“On October 23 she told me that she had written me a goodbye letter. She could not go on, she had stopped praying, stopped believing there was another way out. She asked me to remember her love for me and to take good care of Gabriella.”

Nazanin briefly picked up for a couple of weeks but again fell very low, and decided a hunger strike was her next option – five days into the strike her family were asked to make an emergency visit.

Richard added: “The sight was enough for her mother to pass out. It sent Gabriella hysterical. Only at that point could she be persuaded to eat at least one meal in front of them.”

Richard believes his family are being used as political pawns, due to an outstanding arms debt of £500 million, between the UK and Iran. “My family are caught as collateral.

“However ruthless the Iranian actions they have a point. Allowing Nazanin to be treated this way, the continuing silence over her fate, holds a mirror up to the UK.

“The refusal to pay our debts, all the while allowing a mother and baby to be put through this brings us shame, and I accuse my government of not having my family’s best interests at heart.

“UK failure to resolve means that it is inviting this treatment of its citizens all the time it refuses to pay its debts, and refuses to acknowledge this is what is happening.”

Earlier this week the government announced that it “stands ready” to help bring Gabriella, who is currently being cared for by her Iranian grandparents, back to the UK if requested to do so.