In among the relief and euphoria that attended the return to Britain of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and businessman Anoosheh Ashoori from Iranian jails in March, one family was feeling precisely the opposite emotions. The Foreign Office deal that finally brought Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori home was always supposed to involve three British prisoners. Morad Tahbaz, 66, has been incarcerated in Tehran for four years.
Right up until a week before the deal was made, the Tahbaz family had been told categorically by Liz Truss’s department that Morad – along with his wife, Vida, 64, currently subject to a travel ban in Iran – would be part of any agreement. No one would be left behind. They discovered the truth only when they saw the television news.
