Wife of man being held in Iranian jail where at least three prisoners are suspected of having Coronavirus raises fears

The wife of a man who has been detained by the Iranian government since 2017 has raised concerns over coronavirus in the prison, with at least three prisoners suspected of infection.

Anoosheh Ashoori, 65, from Lee, Lewisham, was arrested by the Iranian government in 2017, who blamed him for spying on the country for Israel, a charge he and his family strongly deny.

Now they fear for the health of the father-of-two, who is in jail in Iranian capital Tehran, since the revelations over the spreading of coronavirus in the country.

“I’m terrified,” said Anoosheh’s wife Sherry Ashoori. “I spoke with my husband yesterday and a prisoner in another ward was taken to hospital suspected of having coronavirus.”

“The prisoners are always handcuffed to guards wherever they go and the guard that brought that prisoner to the hospital went back to the prison.

“It’s a bomb waiting to go off. The conditions in the prison are far from sanitary and there’s little to no access to medicine. No precautionary measures. There’s several thousand prisoners there.

“In addition to what we suffer every day, this is a new angle. Now we have to worry about his health. Innocent people are suffering as a result of incompetence. We’ve all been trying to cope.”

Both Anoosheh and Sherry were born in Tehran, but Sherry grew up in South London, attending Blackheath High School, and Anoosheh grew up in Bristol, completing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Greenwich.

Anoosheh is serving a 12-year jail sentence after he was arrested by police in Iran when he was visiting his sick 86-year-old mother, and Sherry says it is not safe for her to return to Iran to visit her family.

He was arrested in 2017, but the news of his arrest was not made public until September 2019, under advice given to the family by the Foreign Office.

Sherry, who works as a freelance translator, said: “We were afraid of publicising it because of problems it may cause for him.

“It was actually the Iranian government who publicised it on their state television, so we decided to do the same. What’s the point of a hostage if n one knows about it?

“I don’t feel hopeful Anoosheh will be released until the government does something. I don’t see Iran releasing dual citizens unless the government gives them what they want. They should be doing a lot more than they are.

“I think Iran is holding British dual citizens because of Britain’s military debt to Iran.”

Iran claims that the British government owes them £400m after a cancelled arms deal between the two in the 1970s.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in December last year, Sherry said: “Relations between two countries [Iran and USA] are at an all-time low and several months ago, the two were almost on the brink of war.

“Nonetheless, they have negotiated and released two people, who were both unfairly treated and detained, but have now been sent back to the arms of their desperate families.

“How is it that the UK, whose leader was seen chatting away and laughing with President Ruhani, like long-lost friends who have at last been reunited, has not had even a smidgen of success in securing anyone’s release?”

A petition to get the Foreign Office to secure the release of Anoosheh has gathered 50,000 signatures.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We strongly urge Iran to reunite British-Iranian dual national Mr Ashoori with his family.

“Our Embassy in Tehran continues to request consular access and we have been supporting his family since being made aware of his detention.

“The treatment of all dual nationals detained in Iran is a priority and both the PM and Foreign Secretary raised this issue with their Iranian counterparts last month.”

Pictured above: Sherry Izada and Anoosheh Ashoori with daughter Elika Ashoori and son Aryan Ashoori