Ana Diamond, a dual Iranian-Finnish national who grew up in Britain, was detained in 2014 aged 19 after entering Iran from the UK. Two years later she was sentenced to death on charges of “espionage” and “blasphemy” after being accused of working for MI6, the CIA and Mossad. The Iranian regime used pictures of Ms Diamond with Boris Johnson and Theresa May at Conservative Party events as ‘proof’ she was a spy.
However according to Ms Diamond she was really being held as a hostage, as part of an orchestrated campaign by Tehran to seize dual nationals.
She alleged British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and British-Australian woman Kylie Moore-Gilbert, both of whom are currently on hunger strike in an Iranian prison, were seized for the same reason along with numerous other westerners.
Speaking to Express.co.uk Ms Diamond explained how Iranian interrogators used Facebook pictures taken at young Conservative events as evidence after she was detained in 2016.
She said: “They said ‘oh she’s a political aide to David Cameron, she’s a friend of Boris Johnson so she’s a spy for MI6.
“For me it was just absurd because those photos were out on my Facebook so they didn’t actually have to do much research – I was 16 at the time.”
In January 2016 Ms Diamond was arrested and taken to Evin prison for interrogation for seven and a half months, during which she received a death sentence.
She explained: “I was in solitary confinement for about three months and then I was transferred to public ward and then I was transferred back to solitary confinement.
“They really wanted to attach me to the Iran nuclear negotiations that were going on because on multiple occasions during the interrogations they asked me if I know [EU diplomatic chief] Catherine Ashton and how many talks I’d had with her and Theresa May.
“When I received my formal accusations they had written on it I was accused of espionage for MI6, CIA, Mossad and others.”
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The Iran nuclear negotiations concluded with a deal in 2016, which President Trump withdrew the US from in 2018.
Ms Diamond believes she was held in solitary confinement to break her down psychologically.
She said: “Almost inevitably you develop some level of Stockholm syndrome because you have no not there to assist you so when they give you food you think they’re your friends.
“Once they left me without anyone coming to visit me for 20 days, to take me down to the interrogation room, and for those 20 days I had suicidal thoughts but I didn’t know how to commit suicide because there was nothing to commit suicide with.
“When they did come and take me down to interrogation I felt this overwhelming and really disgusting love for them.
“Solidarity confinement is very effective in making your mind malleable which is why it’s so concerning for Kylie Moore-Gilbert who has been in solitary for nearly two years. I really feel for her because I barely survived when I was there 5-6 months, it’s just so soul destroying.”
Whilst she didn’t suffer physical torture Ms Diamond was subject to a mock execution.
She explained: “We’re dealing with a regime which killed 1,500 people in a span of three days in November 2019.
“With dual nationals they have been quite reserved in physical torture and more pressure is put on psychological torture.
“My nails weren’t ripped out, I wasn’t waterboarded but I was put through a mock execution which is just as bad.
“Honestly going through it I wished I was dead already because its just so psychologically horrible and horrendous.
“I’ve been receiving for the past four months psychological help from a charity called freedom from torture, my heart arrhythmia is caused by the psychological damage I got when I was in Iran.”
However Ms Diamond said she saw evidence that torture was used routinely on Iranian political dissidents in Evin prison.
She said: “When I was in public ward I heard woman who had just seen the worst. It’s indescribable.
“Anything from physical beatings to rape to putting people in stress positions for hours at a time, injecting them with drugs to create a dependence and addiction then not giving them the drugs.”
Ms Diamond was released on house arrest later in 2016 after her family raised money for bail, and was finally allowed to leave Iran in 2017 following a visit to Iran by Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary.
She commented: “I read on Iranian national newspapers Boris Johnson had been a very positive figure because two months after his visit my dad was released and I was acquitted of all charges.
“To go from a death sentence to being acquitted just shows you how groundless these accusations were.”
Ms Diamond believes Iran has been seizing dual nationals, including Britons, on spurious grounds to put pressure on western Governments.
She asserted: “Between 2014 and 2015 there is a clear spike in the arrest of dual nationals and its happening for various reasons.
“It’s to get money from western Governments, whether its rightfully owed or not.
“Then there is another aspect which is prisoner swaps which we saw with American Princeton University scholar Xiyue Wang – he was released in exchange for Iranian prisoners in the US just a few weeks ago.
“And then there is another more complicated reason which is to create tension and unease with western Governments.”
Ms Moore-Gilbert, who has been held in solitary confinement for almost two years, went on hunger strike at the end of last year.
She was joined in solidarity by another Briton, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and a number of other prisoners.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard, has admitted he’s worried her release is now less likely following the US assassination of Qasem Soleimani.
Richard Ratcliffe, Ms Diamond and a number of other former Iranian prisoners launched The Families Alliance Against State Hostage Taking in New York late last year.
Neither the Iranian Foreign Ministry nor the Iranian consulate in London responded to requests for comment.