Richard Ratcliffe today hand-delivered letters addressed to his wife Nazanin at the Iranian Embassy in a fresh bid for her release from prison.
Notes telling the mother-of-one to “keep her spirits up” penned by Amnesty campaigners had been returned by Iranian officials ever since she was first imprisoned in 2016 on spying charges.
Mr Ratcliffe today led a demonstration outside the embassy near Hyde Park where he asked for the many thousands of letters to be re-delivered by embassy staff.
He also made a fresh plea to Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister of Abbas Araghchi to release his wife as he visited the UK for talks with British Foreign Minister Alistair Burt.
In a letter of his own left on the embassy’s front doorstep addressed to the minister, he described how his wife “can’t last in prison much longer”.
He told the Standard: “Nazanin is very angry and upset on the phone to me yesterday it just keeps going on and on.
“The deputy is coming over to maintain good relations with the UK government and Nazanin is right in the front of that.
“I still find it extraordinary that no one from the Iranian government will meet with me.
“My letter was gruff - it said ‘enough is enough, my wife can’t last much longer’.”
Charity worker Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 at Tehran’s airport as she tried to board a plane back to the UK with her baby daughter Gabriella. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard charged her with spying and trying to topple the Iranian regime - which she denies - and sentenced her to five years in prison.
Gabriella, now three, was sent to live with her grandparents in Tehran.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who worked for charity Thomson Reuters, is said to have deteriorating mental health and regular panic attacks.
Mr Ratcliffe said: “These letters are from Amnesty supporters. There’s thousands of them. They say “we still care about you”, “know that we are thinking about you”.
“They are simple messages to cheer her up. The fact that people care about her and having things come into prison to show people care is hugely important. She has never seen a single one of these letters.”
Her case is now closed by the judiciary and a release date is in the hands of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. An offer of moving her out of prison to house arrest with her daughter has been rejected by the family.
Mr Ratcliffe, who has not seen his wife or daughter since they were detained in 2016, said: “I’m not sure that it’s any better than prison. You put a depressed woman with a three-year-old in a flat on her own.
“It’s definitely better for her to be with Gabriella but that’s a world of difference to being with your mum and dad. It would be a separate house with guards outside.”
Mr Burt is understood to have discussed the case of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual nationals being held in the country.
