Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: British mother's lawyer 'very confident' her temporary release can be extended

Charity worker is currently on three-day temporary release from Evin jail

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella, after the charity worker was given temporary release from prison in Iran for three days (PA)

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe‘s lawyer is confident her temporary release from prison in Iran will be extended beyond three days, according to the charity worker’s husband.

The British-Iranian citizen was released on furlough from Evin jail in Tehran and is staying with family outside the capital until Sunday.

She was reunited with her family after more than two years behind bars. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said they were “all well and happy” after speaking to them.

He added that he expected to hear on Saturday whether an application to extend the three days’ leave would be granted.

“Her lawyer is very confident that it will be extended. I think we’ll know by lunchtime tomorrow,” he said. “I would expect that if it is extended, that it’s extended for a couple of weeks.”

In an earlier interview with The Independent, he admitted that the furlough had come as a “complete surprise”.

“We don’t know exactly what this all means – they haven’t fully explained to us how it will impact her case but it is a good sign,” he said.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, from Hampstead, north London, was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spying by authorities in Iran.

She has always denied the allegation and said she was on holiday in Iran to allow her daughter, four-year-old Gabriella, to spend time with relatives there.

Gabriella has been staying with family since Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was detained at Imam Khomeini airport in April 2016.

Mr Ratcliffe said: “I spoke to her this morning, she’s very happy. She’s given Gabriella a bath and dried her hair, and brushed her hair. I think she’d really been looking forward to doing that.”

He said his wife had seen media coverage about her temporary release, and was pleased to see the Iranian ambassador to the UK had tweeted a picture of mother and daughter as they were reunited.

Mr Ratcliffe said: “It’s great for Nazanin today to be seeing all the news attention and realise how much care there is out there.”

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said that the temporary release was “extremely positive” and called on Iranian authorities to allow her to return to her family in the UK.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment was a “gross injustice”, he tweeted.

Additional reporting by Press Association