Who is Anoosheh Ashouri? British national released from Iran prison with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Mr Ashoori, 67, is a British-Iranian national who imprisoned in Iran for almost five years but is now reportedly returning to the UK

Mr Ashoori, 67, was imprisoned in Iran for almost five years but is now reportedly returning to the UK, alongside Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. (via REUTERS)

Anoosheh Ashoori is returning to the UK alongside fellow British-Iranian, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, after being imprisoned in Iran for almost five years.

Mr Ashoori, 67, is a retired civil engineer and father-of-two who was born in Iran and holds dual nationality. In 2017, he was arrested on a routine trip to the country to visit his mother.

He was accused of passing intelligence to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and illicitly acquiring money - charges which he denies - and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2019.

(L-R) Aryan Ashoori, Sherry Izadi and Elika Ashoori, the son, wife and daughter of Mr Ashoori, protested outside Downing Street in 2021. (PA)

He has been detained in Evin prison in Tehran ever since, and his family said he has undergone months of solitary confinement, threats to his family’s safety and abusive interrogations without a lawyer.

Mr Ashoori had been living in the UK for more than 20 years upon his arrest and visited his then 86-year-old mother in Iran as she was having knee surgery.

In an interview with the BBC, his daughter, Elika Ashoori, said she hasn’t seen her father since August 2017.

Ms Ashoori said while in Iran, her father was pulled into a van, had a bag put over his head then was told he was being arrested.

She said she collapsed at the news of her father’s arrest. She said: “Evin is notorious for being horrific. Each room is shared by 15 to 20 people, they have rats and cockroaches… it’s awful conditions.”

Mr Ashoori pictured with his family before his arrest (Sherry Izadi/Change.org)

Ms Ashoori added that her father has tried to take his own life twice since being imprisoned.

In January, Mr Ashoori also began a hunger strike “in the hope of bringing global attention” to people held in Iranian prisons, according to statement from his daughter on Twitter.

In a statement, his wife, Sherry Izadi, described her husband as a “peaceful, conscientious, kind, and upright husband and father.”

She added: “He has never been involved in any political activity but has been sentenced to 12 years in Evin Prison for spying for Israel. His life-long interest has been to come up with innovations to build safer earth-quake resistant homes, for which he won an award.

“He has never held any government posts or been privy to any state secrets. I believe he is being used as a bargaining chip in negotiations between the UK and Iran - sacrificed for a being a British-Iranian dual national.”

Mr Ashoori’s wife described her husband as a “peaceful, conscientious, kind, and upright husband and father.” (Sherry Izadi/FreeAnoosheh.com)

On Wednesday morning, it was announced by lawyers that Mr Ashoori would return to the UK after almost five years in prison in Iran.

He, alongside Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, reportedly travelled to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport to come back to the UK, but his wife has described the situation as “fluid”.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their now six-year-old daughter, Gabriella, is reportedly on the way to the UK after being imprisoned in Iran. (PA)

Ms Izadi said Mr Ashoori’s family would not be speaking publicly until he is back home.

In a family statement read by Sky News, she said: “The situation is still fluid and given we have been waiting for Anousheh’s release for five years we will only speak publicly once he is back home.”

Mr Ashoori and Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe are among dozens of British-Iranian nationals who have been imprisoned in Iran.