Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe recalls watching Sir Andy Murray claim Wimbledon title from behind bars in Iran

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has recalled watching Sir Andy Murray win Wimbledon from solitary confinement in an Iranian prison, during an emotional meeting with the Dunblane tennis star.The 44-year-old British-Iranian dual national said Sir Andy offered a “connection” to her life outside prison and an “escape” from her six-year detention.Sir Andy’s voice cracked with emotion and he paused to gather himself when they met at the Lawn Tennis Association in Roehampton for her stint as guest editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Murray described Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s story about watching him win his second Wimbledon title in 2016 from her prison cell as “by far the strangest, most incredible story I’ve been told” about someone viewing him play tennis.Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was freed in March, used the programme to raise the plight of others suffering at the hands of the Iranian regime, amid widespread protests in the country.In her interview with Sir Andy, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “When I was first arrested I was in Evin prison in solitary confinement, and for about five months they didn’t allow me to have any books or newspapers.“There was a TV in the cell I was in but it was off the entire time, and then at some point they decided to let me use the TV but it only had two channels.

One of them was rubbish Iranian-made soap opera all the time, which was very low quality.“The other one was a sports channel, which they thought, this was probably a way to just give them something but not quite something.

Then I put it on, the first thing that was on was Wimbledon that day and that year, 2016.Click here for more news and sport from the Stirling area.“They had no idea what they had given me because I was always a big fan of