Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe granted 3 day furlough from jail in Iran

A British mother jailed in Iran has been given temporary release from prison in Iran for three days, her husband said today.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, has been reunited with her four-year-old daughter Gabriella and her family outside the capital Tehran, after 2.5 years behind bars.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker from London was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2016, after being accused of spying on the Iranian regime.  

Mother’s love: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is seen reunited with her daughter Gabriella after being released on furlough for three days

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe confirmed her three-day release from Evin prison on the Free Nazanin campaign Facebook page, saying their lawyer is ‘hopeful’ it can be extended.

He said: ‘This was a very happy surprise after a number of false dawns recently, which had been increasingly unsettling.’

He said that after several weeks of bureaucracy over her possible temporary furlough, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told earlier on Thursday that she had ten minutes to get ready because she was being released.

She was not allowed to call her family and had to borrow a phone from someone outside the prison to call her brother, who lives in Tehran, to pick her up.

She then called her husband and the British embassy and travelled to join the rest of her Iranian family in Damavand. 

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a holiday with a then-toddler Gabriella in 2016, and emotional photos show the two reunited, with Gabriella presenting her mother with flowers

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 after being accused of spying

‘I cried so much. I felt so overwhelmed,’ she was quoted as saying in the statement released by The Free Nazanin campaign, which is run by her husband. 

‘It will be just awesome for Gabriella to have mummy home finally. We can play with her dolls 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.’

‘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.’ 

NAZANIN ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE TIMELINE

April 2016: Arrested by the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran Airport after visiting her parents in Iran with her young daughter Gabriella.

She was taken to prison and held in solitary confinement for 45 days before being moved to a women’s wing.

The mother-of-one was not given access to legal counsel or medical treatment, and the lights in her cell remained permanently switched on. 

As a result,Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe experienced problems walking, weight loss, and hair loss.

September 2016: She was sentenced to five years in prison for spying following a trial campaigners have branded ‘secret and unfair’.

April 2017: Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe lost her appeal to overturn her sentence.

November 2017: She is hit with fresh charges of spreading propaganda just days after Boris Johnson told British MPs she has been training journalists in Iran.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was told she must return to prison on Sunday and the two conditions of her release are that she not give any media interviews or visit the grounds of any foreign embassy.

Mr Ratcliffe wrote on the Free Nazanin Facebook page that his wife had travelled to Damavand from Evin with her father and brother to rejoin the family holiday, and see Gabriella, her grandmother and the wider family.

‘Gabriella had picked some flowers from the family garden, and was waiting to present them – the tradition she has seen for families waiting outside Evin prison. Gabriella has promised to show her the garden, and also her dolls house.

‘She (Nazanin) was very happy on the phone, though confessed to having cried lots, particularly when seeing her grandmother, and to being still overwhelmed. ‘

Mr Ratclifffe also thanked Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

He said: ‘Our thanks to all those involved in making this possible in Tehran and London, and to the new Foreign Secretary for all his recent efforts and considerations 

The Foreign Secretary took to Twitter to respond to the ‘really good news’, writing: ‘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.’

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s leave from prison comes just days after Mr Hunt revealed that he his considering whether to grant diplomatic protection as a means of freeing her. 

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

— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) August 23, 2018

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella as a baby

Richard Ratcliffe holds a family photo on the second anniversary of his wife’s detention

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier this week, Mr Hunt said that he had been going over the case in an ‘enormous amount of detail’.

He also said he was considering a request by Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband to grant her diplomatic protection.

Diplomatic protection is a mechanism under international law that a state can use to help one of its nationals whose rights have been breached in another country.

The broad legal principle is that British diplomats would no longer be representing the interests of a citizen but the interests of their state.

Mr Hunt said he had not ‘come to a final decision’ on the issue and said there were ‘pros and cons’.

He added: ‘This is a totally appalling situation, it should never be possible that someone can be detained like this without any due reason, for three years now Nazanin has been in prison so we have to do everything we can.

‘Our priority has to be to do the right thing to get Nazanin out.’

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, is facing a further hearing over an unspecified security charge which her family believes will include an accusation of spreading propaganda against Tehran’s Islamist regime.

She has consistently denied all allegations, insisting she was on holiday to introduce her daughter to her family.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk