Heart-breaking appeal from Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s three-year-old British daughter Gabriella to free her mum from Iranian jail
"BE strong, mummy!"
That is the heart-wrenching plea from Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's daughter Gabriella, as her mum continues her torment in an Iranian jail on charges of trying to topple the regime.
The British-Iranian mum was stopped from returning home from a family holiday in April 2016, and has been locked in prison ever since.
Her daughter is living in Iran with her parents, separated from father Richard who is in the UK and unable to get a visa to see her.
The three-year-old has said that all she wants is her mum home for Christmas - something her dad is desperate to deliver for her, reported.
He told the paper that charity worker Nazanin has been making gift tags in preparation - with finger prints from her daughter added outside of the prison she is being kept in.
"That’s win, win, win from her perspective — its Christmassy, it’s messy, and it’s a special thing Gabriella can do with Mummy," Richard said.
"It’s also Nazanin giving Gabriella a sense they will be home for Christmas.”
And he added: "She wants to invite everyone to London with us — all her friends from nursery and Mummy’s friends from prison."
But earlier today Britain's former ambassador to Tehran said it could be a "long haul" flight.
Gabriella - who is British-born, can only speak Farsi because her English has fallen away.
The only words the toddler now knows are 'I love you' and 'See you tomorrow'.
Attending nursery now in Tehran, she thinks Britain is now "like Harry Potter: another strange world of strange languages and sudden packages in the post", Richard says.
The tot has had trouble sleeping, would wake in the night screaming, and became clingy to those around her.
She even had to see her mother with a sack over her head when she first went to see her in the first prison Nazanin was held in.
For the first 38 days of imprisonment, she was denied access to her daughter completely.
Now in a women's wing of Evin jail in Tehran, Nanzanin and Gabriella enjoy their brief time together doing crafts, making Play-Doh and drawing.
And the little girl is growing up confident and has even learned to dance by copying Iranian pop videos.
Gabriella even kisses a photo of her mum every night - and hopes she will be back with her soon.
Dad Richard isn't giving up the fight to free his wife, and be reunited with his daughter.
Boris Johnson has pledged to fly out to try to secure 38 year-old Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release in a bid to make amends for his gaffe that could see her locked up for five extra years.
The Foreign Secretary the British-Iranian was "teaching journalism" during her visit to the country before she was arrested — but the official Government position is that she was visiting family.
Yesterday No 10 revealed that they were considering offering the mum diplomatic protection - after Richard demanded Mr Johnson and the Government take responsibility for the "mess" they had created.
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