Downing Street has said Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should not face “any sort of abuse” after she criticised the UK government for taking too long to secure her release.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been targeted by Twitter trolls and accused by some commentators of being ungrateful for being released after six years in an Iranian prison.
But Boris Johnson’s spokesperson defended Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s right to say what she liked.
“Clearly someone who has been through the sort of ordeal that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has should not have to face any sort of abuse, social media or otherwise,” the spokesperson said on Tuesday morning.
“She has been through an unimaginable ordeal and we are extremely pleased that she is reunited with her family.
“And as a UK citizen, someone in a free and democratic country, she is rightly able to voice her opinion on any topic she wishes.”
At a press conference on Monday, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said it had taken too long for the government to pay a £400 million debt to Iran, which helped secure her release from jail.
She said although she could not be happier to be home, “this should have happened six years ago”.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe added: “How many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five?”
Among those who decided to criticise Zaghari-Ratcliffe was David Bannerman, a former Conservative MEP and a one-time deputy leader of the UK Independence Party, who wrote: “I do hope she’s not biting the hand that saved her. Does she bear no responsibility for being in a country with such a nasty regime?”
He also retweeted an anonymous account which said: “The words you’re desperately searching for are ‘many thanks to the British government and taxpayers for paying the £400 million ransom…’”
But former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt also defended Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and admitted she had been let down by the government.
He tweeted: “She doesn’t owe us gratitude: we owe her an explanation.”