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”.
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.
“But not today. What today is about is celebration and enormous relief.”
