Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband renews his call for his wife to be freed

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe today renewed his call for her to be freed ahead of the second anniversary of her arrest in Iran.

Richard Ratcliffe has said it is clear that the Foreign Secretary’s “mission had not succeeded” in releasing his wife, who is being held on spying charges in the country.

Boris Johnson visited Iran in December, raising her case with President Rouhani but despite hopes she would be freed the charity worker has remained on the female political prisoner wing of Tehran’s notorious Evin jail.

Speaking to the Standard today, Mr Ratliffe said: “I did a lot of hoping at Christmas she would be released but it never happened. And it hasn’t happened for Iranian New Year, Nowruz, which is today. We have got to push to meet with the Foreign Secretary again.”

He will now ramp up his campaign to release his wife, who denies all the charges against her and was on a holiday visiting her parents at the time of her arrest on April 3 2016.

The couple’s daughter Gabriella, who was travelling with her mother at the time of her arrest, now lives with her grandparents in Iran.

Mr Ratcliffe hasn’t seen either his wife or daughter for two years.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a dual British-Iranian national who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

She was stopped by the Revolutionary Guard at Tehran airport, and later charged with attempting to overthrow the Iranian government.

Although her case has been officially closed by the judiciary, she has no official date of release.

To mark the second anniversary, campaigners are calling on celebrities and MPs to write positive messages and jokes to be made into a calendar to be sent to her in prison.

Mr Ratcliffe said: “We’ve been going for such a long time that it’s quite hard to keep spirits up. I really want to draw on the strength and care of the outside world. The calendar is something that could make her smile everyday.”

A comedy night headlined by Al Murray, Shappi Khorsandi and Sara Pascoe and dedicated to Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be held on April 3 in London to raise funds for charities Amnesty International and Redress.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We will continue to approach each case in a way that we judge is most likely to secure the outcome we all want. Therefore we will not be providing a running commentary on every twist and turn.”