Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s daughter Gabriella is “beyond excited at the prospect of being reunited with her mummy” when the detainee arrives back in the UK this evening after six years of wrongful detention in Iran, her family’s lawyer has said.
Lawyer Penny Madden said that the family had gone through “a roller-coaster of emotions” in the past few days, with husband Richard Ratcliffe unable to be sure until the last moment that his wife was in fact being released.
It was only when he received a message from Nazanin with a picture of herself on board a plane - and when they got confirmation that her flight had actually taken off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport – that he was able to enjoy the “enormous relief and celebration” of knowing her ordeal was finally over.
After initially following government advice to keep quite about his wife’s detention, Richard conducted a long and public campaign for her release, including two hunger strikes, outside the Iranian Embassy and the Foreign Office.
Ms Madden, who spoke with Mr Ratcliffe shortly after his wife left Iran, said he felt”jJust enormous relief”.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures Show all 20
1/20Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures 2018 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugs her daughter Gabriella, in Iran after she was allowed to leave the Iranian prison, she is being held in, for three days. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a holiday with her toddler daughter in April 2016. Iranian authorities accuse her of plotting against the government. Her family denies this, saying says she was in Iran to visit family.
Free Nazanin Campaign/AP
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella. Nazanin is serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly plotting to overthrow Iran's government.
PA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures June 2016 Richard Ratcliffe's daughter Gabriella had her British passport confiscated and was stranded in Iran with her grandparents after her mother Nazanin was jailed. He left left a giant birthday card on the doorstep of the Iranian embassy in central London to mark her second birthday in June 2016.
PA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures Nazanin has spent some of her prison sentence in solitary confinement.
PA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures July 2016 Richard Ratcliffe delivering a letter of petition with his mother Barbara Ratcliffe and MP Tulip Siddiq, to 10, Downing Street on the 100th day of her detention, on July 12, 2016.
Getty
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures Supporters of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe held a vigil outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to mark her 707 days in captivity.
Getty
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures January 2017 Richard Ratcliffe holds a '#Free Nazanin' sign and candle during a vigil for for wife on January 16, 2017. The vigil, being held outside the Iranian Embassy in London marks one year since the Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and other US-Iranian dual-nationals were released from prison in Iran.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures Nazanin with her daughter Gabriella before they were detained by Iranian authorities.
Change.org
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures September 2017 Gabriella, who is three-years-old in this picture, has now spent two years away from her mother.
Richard Ratcliffe
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures November 2017 Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson meets with Richard Ratcliffe over Nazanin's case. They meet just days after Johnson told a parliamentary committee that she was in Iran "training journalists".
WPA Pool/Getty
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures November 2017 Actor Emma Thompson braved pneumonia to support Richard Ratcliffe in leading demonstrators before a march in support of Nazanin in November.
Reuters
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures November 2017 Richard Ratcliffe after the march said: 'It is profoundly moving to see so many people here.'
REUTERS
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures November 2017 A picture of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe shown on Iranian state TV as part of a report that made fresh allegations against her. They said she had been recruiting for banned broadcast services, as well as 'opposition cyber teams'.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures December 2017 Iranian president Hassan Rouhani greets British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at the presidential office in Tehran, Iran. Johnson visited Tehran to discuss the fate of detained Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
EPA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella.
PA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures December 2017 Photos of Richard Ratcliffe and his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on display at their home in north London. Mr Ratcliffe said he believed there was "still a chance" she may be released from an Iranian prison in time for a dream Christmas together. Unfortunately that didn't happen.
PA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures February 2018 Richard Ratcliffe delivers a petition and a letter addressed to the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to demand her release, at the Iranian Embassy in London on February 21, 2018. He also left support letters for his spouse in the country's embassy, amid a visit by a deputy foreign minister.
AFP/Getty
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures August 2018 Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt meeting Richard Ratcliffe. Hunt has pledged to do everything possible to secure the release of a charity worker jailed in Iran
Jeremy Hunt/PA
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – in pictures August 2018 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hugs her daughter Gabriella, in Iran after she was allowed to leave the Iranian prison, she is being held in, for three days. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested during a holiday with her toddler daughter in April 2016. Iranian authorities accuse her of plotting against the government. Her family denies this, saying says she was in Iran to visit family.
PA
She told Sky News: “Even at the very end, there was a long wait. We knew that Nazanin was at the airport and couldn’t understand why things weren’t moving.
“And then finally he got the confirmation and a photograph that Nazanin sent through to Richard that she was on the plane and you could see the plane windows behind. And then final confirmation of wheels up and they were in the air.
“I think at that point the enormity that this ordeal of six years has come to an end has really hit everybody involved.”
Ms Madden said it was possible Mr Ratcliffe might eventually seek an investigation into the handling of his wife’s case, but added: “Not today. What today is about is celebration and enormous relief.”
She said: “Richard is the most remarkable person and Nazanin has been so strong, so stoic, both of them have been through absolute hell over the last six years, and I think they just need to have that time and space now to be reunited as a family and to be back together with Gabriella.”
Seven-year-old Gabriella – who was with her mother as a toddler visiting grandparents when she was first arrested in Iran in 2016 and has been able to see her only sporadically since then – was being told about her mother’s journey home, said Ms Madden
“She is obviously hugely excited,” she said. “Beyond excited at the prospect of being reunited with her mummy.
“I think she will definitely be staying up and be allowed to stay up past her bedtime.”
Ms Madden said it was “a real wrench” for Nazinin to leave her parents behind in Iran, knowing that it will be very for her to return.
She had lived with them during periods of house arrest, and they were “hugely supportive and of course absolutely relieved to see their daughter reunited with her family,” she said.
Asked whether the Ratcliffe family would push for an investigation, Ms Madden said: “I think it’s far too early to really speculate in relation to that.
“I think there are clearly questions that need to be answered They are questions that we’ve been asking for many years now. I think ultimately, that’s a question for the Ratcliffe family, but I’m sure that there will be called for those questions to be answered and for those investigations to be made.
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“But not today. What today is about is celebration and enormous relief.”