Anoosheh Ashoori 'not angry' following five-year ordeal in Iran

The father-of-two endured a harrowing detention and spent 17 days on hunger strike

Anoosheh Ashoori en route to London after taking off from Teheran. Photo: Reuters

Anoosheh Ashoori is not angry with the UK government after they secured his release from Iran five years after he was detained, his daughter has said.

Elika Ashoori said her father, 66, seems “fine and in good spirits” but had noticeably lost weight since she last saw him.

The British-Iranian businessman was reunited with his family on Thursday after being released by Tehran along with fellow detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

“I don’t think he’s angry with the UK, as far as I know, I don’t think he’s angry at all. He’s not an angry person,” Ms Ashoori told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“I think he was just very furious with the Iranian officials, with the Iranian government and the way he was treated there.

“But so far he’s been welcomed home, he’s had a very warm welcome home by the Foreign Office, by his family.

“And if there is anger, we haven’t seen it yet, because he’s all smiles now.

“And I don’t think we will see his anger come through in an aggressive way. I think he would channel it, as he always does, into humanist activities and campaigns rather than just an aggressive form of anger.”

Mr Ashoori was arrested by Iranian authorities in August 2017 during a visit to his homeland to see his mother.

In August 2019, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison – 10 years for allegedly “spying for Israel’s Mossad” and two years for “acquiring illegitimate wealth”. He denied both charges.

His wife Sherry Izadi, son Aryan and daughter Elika had tirelessly campaigned for his release.