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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Husband of Brit mother jailed in Iran has 'not lost hope' she will be home for Christmas

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and daughter Gabriella: AFP
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and daughter Gabriella: AFP

The husband of jailed British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe believes there is "still a chance" she may be released from an Iranian prison in time for them to spend Christmas together.

Richard Ratcliffe said his wife, who was arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to show their daughter Gabriella to her parents, imagines her homecoming clearly.

Mr Ratcliffe, from Hampstead, in north west London, has not lost hope of having his wife and daughter back in the UK by December 25, and said he plans for the three of them to go and buy a tree on Christmas Eve.

He said: "It feels like there's still a chance. It certainly feels it's important for me to say that to Nazanin, to keep that hope alive.

Mr Ratcliffe has campaigned for his wife's release (REUTERS)
Mr Ratcliffe has campaigned for his wife's release (REUTERS)

"There's not much hint of Christmas around the house just yet. It's all on hold.

"I've seen where we're going to buy the Christmas tree and I've got the box of decorations in the back of the wardrobe."

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said he had "worthwhile" discussions concerning Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other British-Iranian dual nationals being held in Iran when he visited the country earlier this month.

While he said he did not want to raise false hopes, he believed his messages had been received and understood by Iranian officials.

The "best case scenario" would be if Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who turns 39 on Boxing Day, and Gabriella, now three and a half, fly home towards the end of this week, Mr Ratcliffe said.

"What she wants to do is just sit down and have a cup of tea and just be at home and rediscover her flat. And it's that idea of being normal again.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella

"What we'll do is we'll go down to the park just at the end and they're selling Christmas trees, and we'll bring the Christmas tree back.

"On Christmas Eve, at the last minute, we'll decorate the tree, which I'm sure Gabriella will thoroughly enjoy."

"Nazanin really keeps alive the outside, the future, the happiness ... visualising what it was like on the last moment we saw each other, visualising what it will be like on the first moment we see each other again.

"Emotionally I'm built in a different way. I want to keep battling and when it's time to enjoy that, then I'll enjoy that.

Mr Ratcliffe met with foreign secretary Boris Johnson (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Mr Ratcliffe met with foreign secretary Boris Johnson (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

"It's something about hope, not making that hope so real that then the disappointment is as well."

He added: "It's kind of like a dream I suppose, almost in terms of describing it, and part of me with campaigning is not to really visualise it too clearly, just in case it doesn't happen."

"Knowing that that battle is over. Of course there'll be others to come in terms of the recovering, the recuperation and everything else.

"But the chance to celebrate together, and yes, it's just the being together, and in some ways for me it's the quietness of being together that is the thing I look forward to...I can't rest yet."

Additional reporting by Press Association