THE families of Iranian prisoners Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori bake cookies, walk their dogs together and act as a “self-help group” for each other.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose sister Rebecca is a GP in Cwmbran, said his family have formed a strong bond with the Ashooris and have used social media to build relationships with relatives of other current and former Iranian prisoners across the world.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been in Iranian custody since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, while Mr Ashoori was arrested in 2017 while on a family trip and given a 10-year sentence for spying, despite denials.

The Ashoori family staged an “empty chair” protest on Friday outside Downing Street to mark four years since Mr Ashoori’s imprisonment, and Mr Ratcliffe joined the protest in support.

He said: “At the beginning it’s almost like a self-help group behind closed doors, where you get to share and talk about things, in a way that no-one else could really understand.

MORE NEWS:

“They’re standing in the same shoes that I am standing in, in a way that the diplomats aren’t, and the lawyers aren’t, Amnesty isn’t, and the journalists aren’t.”

The Ashoori family claim that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) actively tried to discourage them from cultivating relationships with the families of other Iranian prisoners with dual citizenship.

Mr Ashoori’s wife Sherry Izadi said: “I think that has been one of the failings of the FCDO, in a way they have never made any effort to bring families that are in this situation together.

“You can’t sympathise with someone unless you know what they’re going through, and we are the only ones who know so obviously yes, it is a very positive experience, you can share your emotions, but this has never been actively encouraged or promoted.”

Elika Ashoori, Mr Ashoori’s daughter, said: “We have managed to connect with these people and now it’s like a web online of all the families that are affected, the ones that do want to come forward, and we’ve built relationships from them, from here, Germany, Austria, Australia, America.”

The FCDO has been approached for comment.