Protesters join husband of jailed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and call on Boris Johnson to 'take responsibility'

Protesters joined husband of mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was jailed in Iran four years ago and are calling on prime minister Boris Johnson to "take responsibility" and help to bring her home.

The British-Iranian woman was arrested during a trip to Iran in 2016 and sentenced to five years of jail after being accused of spying. She has consistently denied the allegation.

Richard Ratcliffe, her husband, and their five-year-old daughter Gabriella stood outside Downing Street in London on Tuesday night along with some 40 other protesters to sing Christmas carols as part of a campaign calling for her release.

People held placards reading "Boris please help free Nazanin" as others filled a Christmas part addressed to Boris, compelling him to take action.

"Please get her home," Ratcliffe pleaded with Johnson, he told PA news agency.

"The message is for you to stand by the promise you made me, that you would leave no stone unturned.

Twitter Post

"Please take responsibility for Nazanin's case and do what you can to get her and others home."

In October the couple decided to send their five-year-old daughter to him in Britain to start school, a decision he called "bittersweet".

Speaking about his daughter, who is in the UK said: "She misses her mum, she misses her granny. We have had a number of nights where she has cried herself to sleep. 

"But luckily she has had a teddy bear her mummy had given her, and granny had given her, and kept one under each arm. It has been easy for her."

Ratcliffe, 40, said that leaving her mother was a difficult experience for the child, and left her "sensitive to abandonment".

"Gabriella said that going to Evin prison to visit her mother sometimes 'gave her a washing machine in her tunny'. She would linger in the visiting room, going back again and again for extra kisses. Even now she remains sensitive to abandonment, and hates saying goodbyes."

He told the Sunday Times that she would tell her mum, "mummy, prison is a nasty place. It keeps you away from me".

In 2017 Boris Johnson was the recipient of intense criticism after he made a misleading statement about Zaghari-Ratcliffe, when he was foreign secretary at the time.

He said that her conviction for spying on Iran was an injustice, but added that she was "simply teaching journalism", - a statement both her family and her employee were quick to say was untrue.

Three days later Zaghari-Ratcliffe was summoned before an unscheduled court hearing, where Johnson's words were cited as proof she was engaged in "propaganda against the regime".

MPS joined Richard to protest her incarceration [Getty]

Her husband said at the time: "Nazanin was on holiday in Iran with Gabriella when she was abducted. Nazanin is not being held for anything she has personally done. It is deeply misleading by both governments to suggest or even half imply otherwise.

"We demand a clear statement from the foreign secretary to correct his mistake - in parliament and in Tehran at the earliest opportunity."

An FCO spokesman at the time attempted a clarification: "While criticising the Iranian case against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the foreign secretary sought to explain that even the most extreme set of unproven Iranian allegations against her were insufficient reason for her detention and treatment."