Richard Ratcliffe, reunited with daughter, says PM can help get his jailed wife released by Iran

The husband of the imprisoned British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has demanded a meeting with Boris Johnson as he said his family had been caught in a “gun fight” between the two countries.

Richard Ratcliffe was speaking at a press conference after he was reunited with his daughter, Gabriella, who had been living with her grandparents in Tehran and visiting her mother in prison in an attempt to minimise the trauma inflicted upon the family. The five-year-old returned to the UK on Thursday.

It was decided Gabriella would come back home to the UK so she could start school, and Ratcliffe expressed his hope that one homecoming would “unlock” another.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested three-and-a-half years ago on spying charges, which she denies.

Richard Ratcliffe said it was a happy day that his daughter was back home, but that his wife was “distraught” in prison in Iran.



“I spoke to Nazanin yesterday and she was reasonably distraught,” Ratcliffe told reporters at Westminster on Friday. “One of the things she really didn’t want to happen was her daughter to leave while she was still in prison.”



Ratcliffe said there was a real risk his wife’s mental and physical condition would deteriorate now Gabriella had left. “If I’m honest though I think it will deteriorate anyway,” he said.



He also said he had requested to meet the prime minister, saying: “We will be looking to meet with Boris as soon as possible. This is an area where he can make a difference. He took responsibility for it as foreign secretary … he hasn’t yet delivered for us.”

Timeline Imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran Show Hide Arrest in Tehran Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is arrested at Imam Khomeini airport as she is trying to return to Britain after a holiday visiting family with her daughter, Gabriella. Release campaign begins Her husband, Richard Radcliffe, delivers a letter to David Cameron in 10 Downing Street, demanding the government do more for her release. Sentenced She is sentenced to five years in jail. Her husband says the exact charges are still being kept a secret. Hunger strike Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's health deteriorates after she spends several days on hunger strike in protest at her imprisonment. Appeal fails Iran’s supreme court upholds her conviction. Boris Johnson intervenes Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, tells a parliamentary select committee "When we look at what [she] was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism". Four days after his comments, Zaghari-Ratcliffe is returned to court, where his statement is cited in evidence against her. Her employers, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, deny that she has ever trained journalists, and her family maintain she was in Iran on holiday. Johnson is eventually forced to apologise for the "distress and anguish" his comments cause the family. Health concerns Her husband reveals that Zaghari-Ratcliffe has fears for her health after lumps had been found in her breasts that required an ultrasound scan, and that she was now “on the verge of a nervous breakdown”. Hunt meets husband New Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt meets with Richard Ratcliffe, and pledges "We will do everything we can to bring her home." Temporary release She is granted a temporary three-day release from prison. Hunger strike Zaghari-Ratcliffe is on hunger strike again, in protest at the withdrawal of her medical care. Diplomatic protection The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, takes the unusual step of granting her diplomatic protection – a move that raises her case from a consular matter to the level of a dispute between the two states. Travel warning The UK upgrades its travel advice to British-Iranian dual nationals, for the first time advising against all travel to Iran. The advice also urges Iranian nationals living in the UK to exercise caution if they decide to travel to Iran. Hunger strike in London Richard Ratcliffe joins his wife in a new hunger strike campaign. He fasts outside the Iranian embassy in London as she begins a third hunger strike protest in prison. Hunger strike ends Zaghari-Ratcliffe ends her hunger strike by eating some breakfast. Her husband also ends his strike outside the embassy.

Moved to mental health ward According to her husband, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was moved from Evin prison to the mental ward of Imam Khomeini hospital, where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have prevented relatives from contacting her. Daughter returns to London Zaghari-Ratcliffe's five year old daughter Gabriella, who has lived with her grandparents in Tehran and regularly visited her mother in jail over the last three years, returns to London in order to start school. Temporary release Amid the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, she is temporarily released from prison, but will be required to wear an ankle brace and not move more than 300 metres from her parents’ home. New charges Iranian state media reports that she will appear in court to face new and unspecified charges. In the end, a weekend court appearance on a new charge of waging propaganda against the state that could leave her incarcerated for another 10 years is postponed without warning, leading Zaghari-Ratcliffe to say "People should not underestimate the level of stress. People tell me to calm down. You don’t understand what it is like. Nothing is calm."

He said he was grateful to all those at the British embassy and Iranian foreign ministry who helped with his daughter’s return.

Ratcliffe added: “Of course, the job is not yet done until Nazanin is home. It was a hard goodbye for Nazanin and all her family. But let us hope this homecoming unlocks another.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s MP, Tulip Siddiq, told the press conference it was “not good enough” to have Gabriella back home while her mother remained incarcerated in Iran. She said Zaghari-Ratcliffe wanted to know why the UK government was not doing more after the Australian government secured the release of dual British-Australian citizen Jolie King and her Australian boyfriend, Mark Firkin.

Siddiq added: “What Nazanin has said is of course she celebrates Jolie’s freedom, but she wants to know why the British government isn’t doing more to get her out. I have now dealt with three prime ministers, with three foreign secretaries, with four Middle East ministers about this case.

“Every single one of those politicians have looked me in the eye and said that this has nothing to do with the debt that we owe Iran. But we know that’s not true. We owe Iran £400m because of a sale of tanks that happened many gears ago. Nazanin and her family have been told by revolutionary guards that the debt is linked to her imprisonment.

“I want to make it crystal clear that I don’t advocate paying for us to release hostages but the truth is this isn’t an exchange for Nazanin. This is money that we owe Iran. You need to pay the debt back so that my constituent is released.”

In a letter smuggled out of Tehran prison and published last week by the Centre for Human Rights in Iran, Zaghari-Ratcliffe wrote: “In the near future my baby will leave me to go with her father and start school in the UK. It will be daunting trip for her travelling and for me left behind, and the authorities who hold me will watch on unmoved at the injustice of separation. That first day of school not for me.”

The former UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt described the letter as agonising to read, saying: “If there was ever a moment for Iran to show some humanity it is now. Let this innocent woman who has suffered so much come home.”

Amnesty said although it was “wonderful” to see Gabriella and her father reunited, the circumstances underlined the “cruelty” of the Iranian treatment of Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

“Nazanin is a prisoner of conscience, who’s been behind bars in Iran for more than three and a half years – now she’s even being cut off from her main source of support, her young daughter,” said Kate Allen, Amnesty International’s UK director.

“This should now be the tipping point – the Iranian authorities should finally do the right thing by releasing Nazanin and allowing her to return home to Richard and Gabriella in the UK.”

In July, Ratcliffe said his wife had been moved from the mental ward of Imam Khomeini hospital, where she was chained to a bed and relatives were prevented from contacting her.

She was returned to Evin prison about five days later, and complained earlier this month to Iranian officers that she had been deprived of her medication, was sometimes kept in solitary confinement and was suffering from severe anxiety.