Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: British woman jailed in Iran allowed visit from daughter to mark 40th birthday

Four-year-old Gabriella says she 'wishes her mum was free'

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British mother jailed in Iran was allowed to meet with her daughter on her 40th birthday.

Four-year-old Gabriella, who has been staying in Iran with family, said she “wished her mum was free” as the pair shared cake in jail, her father Richard Ratcliffe said.

He added that Nazanin had been involved a “long battle” with prison authorities over recent months about health matters.

His wife, he said, had found “some lumps in her breasts again” but claimed access to an oncologist has been blocked.

The charity worker was sentenced to five years in jail in 2016 after being accused of spying – a charge she vehemently denies.

Mr Ratcliffe has mounted a high-profile campaign for his wife’s release and has worked with foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt to secure her release.

“Yesterday Gabriella was allowed in and Nazanin was able to make a small cake which they could celebrate with, and Gabriella cut the cake and wished her mum be free,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Mr Ratcliffe had earlier thanked all those who had supported the campaign to get his wife freed in a video message recorded by The Independent.

He admitted: “Christmas is a tough time for us, particularly this year. It is Nazanin’s 40th, which has loomed large as a landmark. Also, two days later it will be her 1,000th day in prison, which is a very long time to be stuck in a prison cell for something you haven’t done.”

Wearing the scarf his wife knitted for him while in jail in Christmas 2017, Mr Ratcliffe revealed: “This year she is pretty low. A year ago we were sure she would be out before Christmas this year, [but] she’s stuck in a prison cell again.”

In a separate birthday message, Mr Hunt said Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was the victim of a “great injustice”.

“Happy 40th birthday Nazanin! Thinking of you and your family this Boxing Day,” he wrote on Twitter. “If the thoughts and prayers of a whole nation can make a difference to you and other innocent people detained in Iran then this will be last birthday you will be suffering such a great injustice.”

Mr Hunt pressed his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Zarif, about her case in September when they met in New York on the fringes of a United Nations General Assembly.

The month before, she had been granted a three-day release but her request for an extension was denied and she was forced to say goodbye to Gabriella and return to jail.

Amnesty International said Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s birthday will inevitably be a “day of anguish” rather than a day of celebration, and has called on the UK Government to use “every channel of communication available to it” in its efforts to secure her release.

Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s director, said: “Her birthday will be yet another painful moment for Nazanin and her family. What should have been a day of celebration for Nazanin will once again be a day of anguish – her third birthday behind bars. Despite everything, we send Nazanin our warmest wishes.

“Nazanin is a prisoner of conscience who should never have been jailed in the first place.”

Agencies contributed to this report