Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Tuesday described being "so happy" after being temporarily released from the "hell" of Iranian
prison she has been confined in for four years as part of emergency measures to curb the country's raging coronavirus epidemic. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian mother of one from north
London who has been incarcerated since 2016 on charges of trying to overthrow the regime, was released on a two-week furlough from Tehran's Evin prison on Monday afternoon as authorities sought to clear crowded jails where the virus could spread. She is obliged to wear an electronic tag and her movements will be restricted to 300m from her parents’ Tehran home, where she will spend the next fortnight. “I am so happy to be out. Even with the ankle tag, I am so happy. Being out is so much better than being in – if you knew what hell this place is. It is mental. Let us hope it will be the beginning of coming home,” she said in a statement released by her family. “My thinking is that they want to keep me, but outside of prison until they sort out this thing. But to be honest, I just want to go home. I think they are showing a good gesture, as they are hoping to strike a deal. So they want to keep me out. If the deal won’t happen, then they will drag me back in. But if it does, then they will let me go from here.” Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary said: "While this is a welcome step, we urge the government now to release all
UK dual nationals arbitrarily detained in
Iran, and enable them to return to their families in the UK.” It is unclear whether the move to grant furlough to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe heralds a readiness to allow her to return home. Her family have previously been wary of offers of furlough in case it could be used by authorities as a tool to apply psychological pressure. The last time it was granted, for three days in in August 2018, she was subjected to harassing telephone calls from her interrogators and then denied a promised extension and returned to prison at short notice. Monday's decision followed months of back-and forth diplomacy and appears to be have been subject to weeks of internal debate inside the Iranian government.