The husband of locked-up British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said that Iranian authorities approved her release ‘months ago’.
Richard Ratcliffe has said that the head of the prison in Tehran informed him this week that he had already approved her release.
Mr Ratcliffe now wants to know why his wife’s return to the UK from the Tehran jail is being delayed and has asked for an urgent update from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her husband Richard and their daughter Gabriella, had her realease approved ‘months ago’ according to her husband
Mr Ratcliffe said it was not clear what was delaying a return to the UK for his wife, a British-Iranian dual citizen serving a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of spying charges in 2016.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Ratcliffe said: ‘We’ve been getting better messages from the Iranian side, from the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office in Iran.
‘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? What’s going on?’
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a charity worker for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and denies spy charges, saying she was in Iran to introduce her daughter to her parents
He says that while there had been positive signs from Iranian authorities, the family still did not know when they would be reunited with her.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, denies the spy charges and maintains that she was in Iran to introduce her young daughter Gabriella to her parents.
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.’
Mr Ratcliffe (pictured) has now urged Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to find out why his wife’s release and return to the UK is being delayed
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson lobbied for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s early release on humanitarian grounds during a trip to Tehran in December.
The Foreign Secretary was previously criticised for potentially doubling her sentence on fresh spying charges after wrongly saying that she’d been training journalists in Iran.
Mr Johnson said at the time: ‘I think the best thing I can say is that the truth is we are continuing to work very hard with all the consular cases, particularly the very difficult ones we have in Iran.
‘I just don’t want to get into a running commentary. There are very good reasons for not saying anything.’
The Foreign Office said that it ‘will not be providing a running commentary on every twist and turn’ in response to Mr Ratcliffe (pictured is Mr Johnson meeting with Mr Ratcliffe in November)