Anoosheh Ashoori Describes The 'Horror' Of Being Imprisoned In Iran

Anoosheh Ashoori still pinches himself to make sure he's safe at home in south London with his wife and not in the "horror" of Evin prison in Tehran.

"Sometimes I still can't believe I'm back," he told me from his Lewisham living room. "When I was in my cell and dreamed that I was with Sherry, I used to pinch myself." Then I'd wake up to the fact that I was still in my cell. It's the opposite way around here."

It's a significant - but happy - adjustment to a new life of freedom, which started with a full English breakfast and his favorite beer.

"I still hold Sherry's hand at night to see if this is real, if this is occurring."

The 68-year-old was visiting his elderly mother, who had recently undergone knee surgery, in August 2017 when he was bundled into a van, blindfolded, and charged of spying for Israel.

He and his family initially mistook it for an error. The retired engineer has no political experience. His inventions include a gadget to safeguard Iranian homes following a terrible earthquake in 2003, as well as self-heating boots for his daughter's Greenwich Market cake business.

He says, "You always question, 'Why me?'" "It's like when there's an airplane crash and someone's child is on board. 'Why me?' the mother might wonder.

He didn't realize he was being held as a bargaining chip until later.

Iran demanded reimbursement of a decades-old military debt from the United Kingdom.

He stated, "It wasn't me who was important." "It was the passport that was being detained, but the passport bearer was me."

Mr Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, two British-Iranian nationals, stepped down the stairs of a jet at RAF Brize Norton on March 17th.

Their release happened after the United Kingdom paid Tehran the money it owed for a tank sale that was never completed after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Despite the fact that both the British and Iranian governments have stated that the two crises are unrelated.