TOGETHER AT LAST

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe beams alongside husband and daughter in first family selfie after 6 YEARS of Iran jail hell

Ed Southgate

Published: 21:56, 17 Mar 2022
Updated: 6:59, 18 Mar 2022

FREED Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe beams alongside her husband and daughter in their first family selfie in the UK for six years.

The former British hostage, 44, took a smiling snap with daughter Gabriella, seven, and husband Richard, 44, in a field of daffodils.

Freed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe beams in a family photoCredit: PA

Daughter Gabriella. seven, was just a baby when they last took family photosCredit: EPA

The family were reunited after six years of hellCredit: AFP

Their last photos taken before Nazanin was jailed in Iran in 2016 when when Gabriella was just a baby.

Her MP Tulip Siddiq shared the new family picture and wrote: "So lovely to have uplifting conversations with Richard and Nazanin today."

Gabriella cried out "Mummy! as she spotted her for the first time after she was flown home this morning.

She ran into her mother's arms, leaving onlookers fighting back tears.

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During one tender cuddle, Gabriella told her mum: "You smell nice."

Her mum laughed, hugged her again and said: "Do I smell nice? I haven't had a shower for 24 hours. Is that OK?"

And she told her husband "get the kettle on!" in her first phone call since being freed.

Nazanin's breakthrough release came as ministers settled an historic £400million debt over a cancelled tank contract dating back to the 1970s by agreeing a humanitarian aid package, which may include Covid vaccines.

Gabriella, who was allowed to visit her mum in Iran in 2018, had earlier picked out the toys she wanted to take on the welcome home trip.

And Richard — who last year spent 21 days on hunger strike campaigning for her release — joked the family home in Hampstead, North London, would need a serious tidy-up

He said: “The first thing she wanted was for me to make her a cup of tea, so we’ll do that.

“I think, actually, we were looking at the house and it needs a bit of tidying, so there might be a bit of tidying, perhaps directed by mummy.

“This has been a cruel experience in some ways but also an exposure to such a level of kindness and care from all walks of life.

“I think it is going to be the beginning of a new life, a normal life, and hopefully a happy family.”

And cuddling his daughter yesterday, Richard said he could not wait to “stop being a moment in history and start being a normal family again”.

He added: “We can’t take back the time that’s gone but we live in the future, not the past. We’ll take it one day at a time. It’s going to be the beginning of a new life.”

Nazanin was arrested in 2016 while on holiday in Tehran and convicted of trumped up charges of plotting to overthrow the government.

She endured mental torment and physical hardship alongside killers and cut-throats in Tehran’s grim Evin Prison for five years and served another year under house arrest.

After months of secret talks, ministers agreed that the cancelled tank order has been symbolically tied to the release of several dual nationals.

Ruthless rulers used her as a pawn as they haggled for the return of cash paid for 1,500 Chieftain tanks, which Britain refused to deliver after Iran was seized by Islamists in 1979.

Because Iran is subject to international sanctions, Britain did not pay the debt with cash.

Ms Truss said the funds “will be ring-fenced solely for the purchase of humanitarian goods” — and stressed it did not break any international sanctions rules.

Sources have suggested the cash could go towards Iran’s floundering vaccine rollout.

Ms Truss — the fifth Foreign Secretary to have worked on the case — suggested the new regime in Iran had helped push the talks forward in the last year.