Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years in jail in Iran for spying, has been temporarily released from prison for the first time in more than two years.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whose plight has left a shadow hanging over Iran-UK relations, was given a three-day furlough on Thursday morning, taking her and her family by surprise.

She has since been reunited with her four-year-old daughter, Gabriella, who has been in the care of her Iranian family since she was 22 months old.

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“It will be just awesome for Gabriella to have mummy home finally,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said, according to her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who remains in the UK.

“We can play with her doll’s house and she can show me her toys. The thought of brushing her hair and giving her a bath, of being able to take her to the park and feed her and sleep next to her – it just kills me. It is still so hard to believe.”

Play Video 0:39 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: husband hopeful of full release – video

The Iranian move comes ahead of critical decisions by the European Union on the extent to which it will resist US sanctions designed to curb European investment in Iran, including any purchase of Iranian oil.

UK diplomats have been impressing on Tehran that the UK opposition to the US efforts to destroy the nuclear deal signed in 2015 is genuine, but Iran has regarded the UK as the potential weak link in the EU alliance backing the deal.

The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in Washington for talks with the US secretary of state this week, rejected US calls to defect from the European alliance supporting the nuclear deal.

In a sign of Tehran’s potential future isolation, the US national security adviser, John Bolton, said on Wednesday the US intended to enforce a banking and oil embargo on Iran from November in order to reduce its oil exports to zero.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was notified that her furlough was about to begin in the early hours of Thursday, while she was still in her nightclothes, and told that she had 10 minutes to get ready and leave. After passing through the prison gates, she borrowed a mobile phone from a stranger to tell her brother she had been released.

Gabriella picked flowers from the garden and gave them to her mother when the two were reunited in the family home. For more than half her short life, all Gabriella’s time with her mother has been on prison visits.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all when it was mentioned two weeks ago. I didn’t tell Gabriella or, for a long time, my mum so if it didn’t happen I would be the only one to suffer,” Zaghari-Ratcliffe said. “My dad’s home is not my home – but it is so much better than prison.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release is limited to three days – the standard period in the Iranian penal system – but could be extended, as in cases involving other political prisoners.

Hers is the most high-profile in a string of cases involving dual nationals held in Iran, and received huge attention in the UK after her fate became intertwined with the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s political career when he made an erroneous statement that complicated her legal battle. That mistake forced Johnson to make his first visit to Tehran.

Hunt, Johnson’s successor, said on Twitter he was happy to learn of her temporary release, but said she should be permanently freed.



Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) Really good news that Nazanin has been released on furlough, credit to tireless campaigning by husband Richard and her friends. But being in prison AT ALL is gross injustice and she must be PERMANENTLY released for which every effort will continue @FreeNazanin

The saga impaired relations between the UK and Iran as both countries were trying to focus on an improvement in ties following the 2015 nuclear deal.



Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release comes after an extraordinary public campaign mounted by her husband that has made her case familiar throughout the UK.



Richard Ratcliffe said: “We have been burned by hope before, so it had been easier to presume disappointment would come again. But it didn’t – she is outside those prison walls. And we are all so pleased.

“I want to thank Jeremy Hunt for all his efforts and for the efforts of all of his staff and all the Iranian authorities involved. I have been very critical in the past – I may need to be critical again. But today is a good day.”

He added: “Furlough is not full freedom – we want her home, not just on holiday from prison – but it is still such a good step. I promised Nazanin I will keep campaigning until she is home in the UK, so we don’t get caught in some limbo of house arrest. But, after 873 days, it is a massive step and we owe a thank you to everyone who has carried us this far.”



Iran’s ambassador to the the UK welcomed the news.

Hamid Baeidinejad (@baeidinejad) Mrs. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been granted a three-day release from prison in Iran to reunite with her family. She immediately joined her four-year-old daughter, Gabriella who welcomed her mom with flowers. Lovely picture pic.twitter.com/aST1efpJCJ

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 by members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as she and her daughter were about to board a flight back to the UK following a visit to her family in Iran.

She was accused of attempting to orchestrate a “soft overthrow” of the Islamic Republic, spying and running “a BBC Persian online journalism course which was aimed at recruiting and training people to spread propaganda against Iran”.



Zaghari-Ratcliffe had worked for BBC Media Action, the corporation’s international development charity, between February 2009 and October 2010 before moving to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news agency’s charitable arm, as a project manager.

Sentenced to five years in jail on charges relating to national security, her mental and physical condition became fragile. Her husband revealed that she was losing her hair and experiencing “low and despairing” moods as her incarceration lasted far beyond her expectation.

Iranian judicial authorities later reopened her case and tried her on additional charges based on claims of fresh evidence that appeared to include a BBC pay stub and her personal email.



Johnson became personally involved in the case after he mistakenly told a parliamentary committee Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been training journalists while, in fact, she was on holiday in Iran. He reluctantly apologised and met her husband before travelling to Tehran to lobby for her release. Iran’s state TV, however, aired a series of programmes citing Johnson’s erroneous statement as “an inadvertent confession” that she was spying in Iran.

According to her family, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told in court her case was related to money the UK government owes to Tehran in connection with a four-decade dispute over hundreds of Chieftain tanks bought from the UK in 1976.

The British government admits it owes up to £400m, but the countries have wrangled over the precise sum and interest due. The Guardian reported this week that Iran was willing to receive payment in the form of medicine, as the UK worried the payback might violate sanctions.

Both governments deny Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment is linked to the debt.

Monique Villa, the chief executive of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said: “It fills my heart with joy to see pictures of her holding her daughter, Gabriella, now four years old, in her arms. What’s missing in the picture is Nazanin’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, whose courage and strength throughout has been inspirational. I can only hope they are reunited as soon as possible.”