British-Iranian nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori will be reunited with their families in the UK after being freed from Iran.
A photograph from 2016 show Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe posing for a photograph with her daughter Gabriella, who is now aged seven. Photo: AFP
Zaghari-Ratcliffe will return to her husband and seven-year-old daughter Gabriella - who plans to show her mother her new toys.
"It's going to be the beginning of a new life," Richard Ratcliffe said.
Ashoori's family said they could now rebuild the foundations of their family with their "cornerstone back in place".
In a statement, they hailed his release and return to the UK after "five long years" before thanking those who worked to bring him home.
A second man, Morad Tahbaz, who has Iranian, UK and US nationality, has been released from prison but is not yet allowed to leave Iran.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss paid tribute to the "incredible resolve and determination" shown by Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Ashoori, Tahbaz and their families, saying the "agonies" they endured "must never happen again".
Truss said ministers would keep working to secure Tahbaz's release.
The government has said it also settled a debt of almost £400m owed to Iran from the 1970s, with the funds ring-fenced solely for humanitarian purposes.
Speaking in the Commons, Tulip Siddiq - Zaghari-Ratcliffe's MP - said: "Can I say to Nazanin, welcome home, after six long years. And can I say to Gabriella, this time mummy really is coming home."
Paying tribute to Mr Ratcliffe, who watched from the public gallery with Gabriella, Siddiq said he had "really set the bar high for husbands" in his efforts to secure his wife's release.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been held in Iran since 2016 - accused of plotting to overthrow Iran's government, which she denied.
Ashoori was arrested in 2017 and accused of spying, a claim he denied.
Cuddling his daughter, Gabriella, Ratcliffe told journalists they would really believe the news when they saw "mummy".
He said he wanted to thank people "up and down the country" for supporting his campaign for her release, which included a hunger strike last October.
"Ours has been a cruel experience in some ways, but it's also been an exposure to such a level of kindness and care," he said.
"This will be a chapter in our lives, but there are many more chapters to come."
Speaking after hearing MPs speak in the House of Commons, he told the Press Association the family would "be away for a couple of days recuperating, doctors and check-ups and so on".
He said on returning to their home, the first thing his wife wanted to do was "sit down on the sofa, make a cup of tea, and just be in the living room together" and that he looked forward to "pottering around the neighbourhood and be[ing] normal again".
Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been under house arrest and was given her UK passport back this week.
Ashoori's wife Sherry Izadi told the BBC that he was determined to put his ordeal behind him and return to normal life as soon as possible.
She said on his return to the UK he would most be looking forward to hugging his family and his first beer.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori were flown from Tehran to the capital of Oman, Muscat, and have since left on a plane to the UK.
On Wednesday evening, Siddiq tweeted a new photograph of Zaghari-Ratcliffe on the last leg of her journey.
It's been 6 long years - and I can't believe I can FINALLY share this photo.
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) March 16, 2022
Nazanin is now in the air flying away from 6 years of hell in Iran.
My heart goes out to Gabriella and Richard, as her long journey back home to them gets closer by the minute.#NazaninIsFree ❤️ pic.twitter.com/BzEEBP840C
Antonio Zappulla, chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation where Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked as a project manager, said staff were "overjoyed" at news of her release.
He said she had endured "utterly inhumane treatment" over the past six years, including being "denied her freedoms, separated from her husband and young child, battling significant illness, thrown in solitary confinement".
But he added that her freedom was "a ray of light and hope" at a time when the world was "in turmoil and the news has been consistently bleak".
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was "fantastic" Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been freed and could return to her family and that he was also "thrilled" for Ashoori and Tahbaz.
A £393.8m debt relating to a cancelled order for 1500 Chieftain tanks dating back to the 1970s had been linked to the continued detention of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK-Iranian dual nationals held in the country - although the government had previously said the two issues should not be connected.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh had been freed on "humanitarian grounds" and that it would be "wrong" to link the UK's payment of its debt to Iran to their release.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was "an incredible moment" for Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family after an "unimaginable ordeal".
He added that there would be questions to be answered about "what happened along the way", but at present his thoughts were with the family.
- BBC
