Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe today criticised the government for taking six years to secure her release from prison in Iran.
The mother-of-one said she was let down by successive foreign secretaries before she was finally freed last week.
Speaking at a press conference in the House of Commons, she also called for an end to the detention of other dual nationals held in Iran.
She described herself as the “lucky one” and said many others languishing in Iranian prisons were still suffering.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she disagreed with her husband, Richard, who had thanked the government for finally reaching a deal over a £400 million debt owed to Iran by the UK over an order for Chieftain tanks more than 40 years ago.
She said had there had been five different foreign secretaries over the course of her six years in prison.
“That is unprecedented given the politics of the UK,” she said. “I love you Richard, respect whatever you believe, but I was told many, many times that ‘Oh we’re going to get you home’. That never happened.”
She said this resulted in her finding it difficult to place trust in them, adding: “How many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five?
“What’s happened now should have happened six years ago.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, was finally reunited with her daughter Gabriella and husband in the early hours of the morning last Thursday when she arrived at RAF Brize Norton with fellow British-Iranian prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori.
“How many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five?”
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
She highlighted the continued detention of British-US national and wildlife conservationist Morad Tahbaz, who, according to his family, has gone on hunger strike after he was taken back into prison after just 48 hours on furlough.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “I believe that the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete as to such time that all of us who are unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families.
“To begin with Morad, but also the other dual nationals, members of religious groups, or prisoners of conscience.
“We do realise that if I have been in prison for six years there are so many other people we don’t know their names who have been suffering in prison in Iran.”
Roxanne Tahbaz, the daughter of Morad, also took part in the press conference. She said her mother is on a travel ban within Iran.
She said: “We just want [the UK government] to do whatever they have to do to bring them back.”
The Zaghari-Ratcliffe family are not expected to hold any other interviews following today’s press conference and are asking for their privacy to be respected so they can settle into their new family life.
Gabriella was just 22 months old when her mother was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on trumped up charges of plotting against the regime – which she has always denied.
The charity worker was sentenced to five years in the notorious Evin Prison and was detained in Iran ever since.
Gabriella spent three-and-a-half years living with her maternal grandparents in Iran, visiting her mother in prison each week and Skyping her father in the UK.
She returned to the UK to live with her father and start school in October 2019, hoping that her mother would soon follow behind.