The children of Anoosheh Ashoori have told of their incredible relief after he was released from an Iranian prison.
Aryan, 32, and Elika, 35, said his return home would be “very emotional” as he prepared to board a flight from Muscat back to Britain after spending years in an “overcrowded and unhygienic” prison in Tehran.
Mr Ashoori, 67, was arrested in August 2017 while visiting his elderly mother and later imprisoned on “trumped up” spying charges, which he denied. Iranian authorities had claimed he was a spy for Israel’s Mossad - despite having lived in the UK for nearly 20 years.
However, on Wednesday the retired civil engineer was finally permitted to return to the UK along with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after ministers settled an outstanding £400 million debt owed to Iran.
Speaking following his release on Wednesday, his children told the Standard that they had experienced a week of “ups and downs” but could not wait to see their father again.
“Obviously the first thing we’ll notice is that he is significantly older, has lost a lot of weight and his hair is completely white,” Aryan said. “He will probably start crying – happy and sad tears. It’s going to be very emotional.”
Mr Ashoori was subject to horrific conditions in prison, with Amnesty International warning that he had experienced torture and was “repeatedly interrogated without a lawyer present and forced to sign ‘confessions’ while sleep deprived".
Elika said that her father’s horrific experiences meant that their family life “would not be the same as it was before”.
“He has gone through unimaginable trauma and we have felt excruciating pain here,” she said. “After the initial resettling, we will have to find ways to move forward without letting the ghosts of this experience taint our relationship or our outlook.
“It is like dealing with a war veteran. It’s almost the same thing – the level of trauma is the same.”
Elika said that her father may turn to activism and help other dual foreign nationals detained in Iran as part of the “healing process”. It is estimated that there are dozens still imprisoned in the country.
Mr Ashoori spent a decade in the UK between 1972 and 1982 where he studied mechanical and aeronautical engineering before returning to Iran due to his father’s illness. He later returned to the UK in 2005 with his wife Sherry Izadi and their two children.
Elika described the initial months after his arrest as “surreal” as their father was held in solitary confinement. At this time, they had not yet approached the Foreign Office – though they were later advised by officials not to speak out publicly over safety fears.
“We were extremely confused as to what was going on… it made it unbearable,” she said. “We couldn’t tell anyone, which had a heavy burden on us and affected our daily lives.”
However, since his detainment the family have spent years lobbying ministers to help their father and have also teamed up with Richard Ratcliffe.
Aryan noted that the “pressure” through their activism had helped, adding: “If we hadn’t spoken out, my dad might have been forgotten about and nothing would have happened.
“This also paid off for Nazanin.”
Mr Ashoori’s case has been taken on by a string of Foreign Office ministers, including current frontbenchers Liz Truss and Dominic Raab, but Aryan said it was the tireless work of the civil service that ultimately helped bring his father home.
“We can’t give credit to a single minister,” he said. “I think the important work has been done by the civil service…but those are the names that don’t get media attention or stand at podiums.”
However, he singled out deputy prime minister Dominic Raab for his help. “When we met him we felt like he worked hard to get this through”.
Aryan said that he hoped that his father’s release would help the Government prioritise the release of other dual nationals being held in inhumane conditions.
“The only way these things can be overcome is by building trust between countries”, he said, adding that he also hoped that the lifting of sanctions would improve the lives of ordinary Iranians.
