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The family of a British man being flown out of Iran on Monday in a $6bn (\u00a34.8bn) prisoner swap have spoken of their joy at his release after more than five years in captivity.<\/p>\n
Wildlife conservationist Morad Tahbaz, 66, who also holds Iranian citizenship, was arrested during a crackdown on environmental activists in January 2018.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on vague charges of spying for the US and undermining Iran\u2019s security.<\/p>\n
Mr Tahbaz, who has cancer, was released on furlough in March last year but was then taken back into custody at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran on the same day as charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released back to the UK.<\/p>\n
Mr Tahbaz (right, wearing mask) is welcomed on the tarmac at Doha airport after his release from Iran<\/p>\n
(AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
His family posted an emotional statement to X, formerly known as Twitter, about his \u201csurreal\u201d release, saying: \u201cWe are overjoyed and relieved to finally have Morad and [his wife] Vida free and on their way back home after six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful to President Biden and his administration for making the difficult but necessary decision to prioritise the lives of American citizens over politics. Thank you for leading with courage and compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cAt this time, we are focused on the reunion of our family, the physical and mental health of Morad and Vida, and the path to recovery of these lost years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was \u201cextremely pleased\u201d that Mr Tahbaz\u2019s \u201cterrible ordeal\u201d was over.<\/p>\n
The prime minister\u2019s official spokesman said: \u201cBy seeking to use foreign nationals as bargaining chips, the regime\u2019s leaders are fatally undermining Iran\u2019s credibility on the world stage. They must stop using foreign nationals for political bargaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the UK\u2019s involvement, we weren\u2019t a part of the negotiations between the US and Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Tahbaz was allowed medical care on another temporary furlough with his family in Tehran last July on the condition that he wore an ankle bracelet.<\/p>\n
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But his release finally came on Monday after a Doha-brokered deal between the United States and Iran unfroze $6bn of Tehran\u2019s funds.<\/p>\n
Mr Tahbaz, wearing a blue shirt, steps down onto the tarmac at Doha airport after his release from Iran<\/p>\n
(AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe\u2019s husband said it was \u201cvery hard\u201d to see Mr Tahbaz \u201cleft behind\u201d in 2022 and that his family would be feeling \u201ca mixture of trepidation and real hope and fear\u201d before his plane took off.<\/p>\n
Richard Ratcliffe told BBC Radio 4\u2019s World At One programme: \u201cWhen you go through that experience, you certainly believe anything bad could happen at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK\u2019s chief executive, slammed the government for failing to get his release alongside Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis is a huge relief after what\u2019s been a terrible ordeal for Morad, who should never have been jailed in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re delighted for Morad and his family who\u2019ve campaigned tirelessly for his release, often battling with UK officials who\u2019ve never treated Morad\u2019s plight with anywhere near the urgency and seriousness it merited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released last year, Morad was grievously let down by the UK government, including with hollow promises from Liz Truss when she was Foreign Secretary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all these years, we hoped the UK would have significantly raised its game when it was confronted by the arbitrary detention of UK nationals overseas \u2013 yet almost nothing seems to have been learnt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roxanne Tahbaz holds a picture of her father, Morad, while he was in jail in Iran <\/p>\n
(PA Archive)<\/p>\n
Mehran Raoof, a British-Iranian national and a labour rights activist, is still being detained in Tehran\u2019s Evin prison after Revolutionary Guards agents arrested him in October 2020. <\/p>\n
Mr Deshmukh added: \u201cUK officials are still keeping families at arm\u2019s length with stock answers and uninformative meetings, being too passive when they should be demanding consular visits and the ability to attend trial hearings, and they\u2019re not working collaboratively with partner countries anywhere near as much as they should.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government needs to drastically upgrade its procedures to prevent more unnecessary heartbreak and suffering in cases like Morad\u2019s, and it now needs to urgently seek the release of Mehran Raoof, who\u2019s been arbitrarily jailed in Iran for nearly three years, and Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who\u2019s similarly been arbitrarily imprisoned in Egypt for almost four years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held in the same prison as Mr Tahbaz <\/p>\n
(Getty)<\/p>\n
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n
According to reports, Mr Tahbaz had been using camera traps to monitor endangered species, including the Persian leopard and Asiatic cheetah when he was arrested. <\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed he and fellow environmentalists were committing espionage by photographing Iranian military installations.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Ministry, spokesman Nasser Kanaani, said: \u201cFortunately Iran\u2019s frozen assets in South Korea were released and. God willing, today the assets will start to be fully controlled by the government and the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the subject of the prisoner swap, it will happen today and five prisoners, citizens of the Islamic Republic, will be released from the prisons in the US. <\/p>\n
\u201cFive imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the US side.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said two of the Iranian prisoners will stay in the US. <\/p>\n
The transfer of Iran\u2019s funds under the agreement has drawn criticism from US Republicans who say President Biden is in effect paying a ransom for US citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the worldSign up to our free Morning Headlines email The family of a British man being flown out of Iran on Monday in a $6bn (\u00a34.8bn) prisoner swap have spoken of their joy at his release after more than five years in captivity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n