The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual citizen jailed in Iran for spying, has called on the foreign secretary to explain why she has not returned to Britain.

Richard Ratcliffe said it was not clear what was delaying a return to the UK for his wife, who was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to five years in jail, after the head of the prison where she was being held this week said he had approved her release.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was accused of running a BBC Persian online journalism course and seeking a “soft overthrow” of the Islamic republic. She denies the charges and maintains she was in the country to introduce her young daughter, Gabriella, to her parents.

Ratcliffe told Sky News there had been positive signs from Iranian authorities, but he still did not know when the family would be reunited. “We’ve been getting better messages from the Iranian side, from the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office in Iran,” he said.

“This week the head of prison said, ‘oh yes, I’ve approved her release, I approved it a number of months ago’. So there’s been clearly things to hold on to, hopefully. Part of the aspiration of today’s message to the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, is I would like to meet to ask: ‘What’s the blockage?’”



Last November, Johnson wrongly told a parliamentary committee that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “simply teaching people journalism” during her trip to Iran, prompting fears that it would be used to justify her conviction.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We will continue to approach each case in a way that we judge is most likely to secure the outcome we all want. Therefore we will not be providing a running commentary on every twist and turn.”