Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe arrives in UK to be reunited with husband and daughter after 6 years in Iran

Mother-of-one returns to Britain having been in Iran since 2016

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has arrived safely in the UK after being imprisoned in Iran for six years.

The British-Iranian mother-of-one returned to the country with fellow detainee, Anoosheh Ashoori, after being handed over to a British team at a Tehran airport on Wednesday morning.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was “delighted” that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori were home.

She tweeted: “Delighted that Nazanin and Anoosheh have landed safely in the UK and are reunited with their families and loved ones.

“Welcome home.”

It comes after the UK government settled a £400m debt relating to a military deal in the 1970s.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow Iran’s government, which she has always denied.

Mr Ashoori, a retired engineer and father-of-two, was arrested five years ago and sentenced to 12 years in prison on spying charges, which he also denies.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and their now six-year-old daughter, Gabriella before she was detained (PA)

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, lives with the couple’s six-year-old daughter, Gabriella, in London and has campaigned for her release since her arrest, including going on hunger strike in October last year.

He previously criticised the British government for their apparent lack of action in trying to free his wife.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe flew back from Tehran today (PA Media)

Speaking before her arrival he said: “There is a recovery process, you can’t get back the time that is gone, that’s a fact.

“But we live in the future and not the past, so we’ll take it one day at a time.

“I think it is going to be the beginning of a new life, a normal life, and hopefully a happy family.

“And there will be bumps, no doubt, and all the normal squabbles we had before but, yeah, I think we’re really looking forward to seeing her.”

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s daughter, Gabriella, protested outside the Iranian Embassy in London in 2021 for her mother’s release. (PA Archive)

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ordeal began when she was arrested in Tehran, where she was born, after visiting her parents and celebrating Nowruz (Persian new year) in April 2016.

She has been imprisoned since and underwent multiple appeals and a five-day hunger strike.

On Wednesday morning, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori were handed over to British officials at the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran.

Mr Ashoori’s family said they would not speak publicly until he arrives back home.

In a statement to Sky News, his wife, Sherry Izadi, said: “The situation is still fluid and given we have been waiting for Anoosheh’s release for five years we will only speak publicly once he is back home.”

The family of Mr Ashoori, including his wife wife Sherry Izadi, his daughter, Elika, and his son, Aryan, staged a protested opposite Downing Street on August 13, 2021. (Getty Images)

Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, where Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe lived with her family prior to her arrest, tweeted on Wednesday morning that her constituent was at the airport and on her way home.

Ms Siddiq added: “I came into politics to make a different, and right now I’m feeling like I have.”