A British woman who has been imprisoned in Iran for 873 days has been allowed out for three days to see her family, including her 4-year-old daughter.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker, was detained in April 2016 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard after a holiday to visit her parents with her daughter, Gabriella, then just 22 months old.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who is campaigning for her full release, said in a statement that she was released on Thursday morning and travelled to the city of Damavand in Iran, where she is with family.
"This was a very happy surprise after a number of false dawns recently, which had been increasingly unsettling."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken to Tehran's Evin Prison, where she spent more than eight months in solitary confinement after being charged with plotting to overthrow Iran's regime.
She is not allowed to do any interviews while on furlough, or temporary release, but she said in a statement: "It will be just awesome for Gabriella to have mummy home finally. We can play with her dolls house, and she can show me her toys. The thought of brushing her hair, and giving her a bath, of being able to take her to the park, and feed her, and sleep next to her — it just kills me. It is still so hard to believe."
In his statement, Ratcliffe thanked the new British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for his efforts in securing the temporary release — which comes in stark contrast to the family's criticism of his predecessor, Boris Johnson, who erroneously told a parliamentary committee in 2017 that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been in Iran "training journalists."
This comment could, Ratcliffe argued, have seen her retried and her original sentence of five years increased.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has consistently maintained that she was in the country on holiday.
Hunt used Twitter to call for her to be permanently released and said efforts to achieve this would continue.
Really good news that Nazanin has been released on furlough, credit to tireless campaigning by husband Richard and her friends. But being in prison AT ALL is gross injustice and she must be PERMANENTLY released for which every effort will continue @FreeNazanin