The family of Anoosheh Ashoori say he is “over the moon” to be coming home after having “not seen the light of day” for nearly five years in an Iranian jail.

Retired civil engineer Mr Ashoori is believed to have been snatched from the streets of Tehran while visiting his mother and held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.

But in a landmark day on Wednesday he was released and along with fellow British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe able to fly out of the country.

Reacting to her father’s release after so long, his daughter Elika Ashoori told Sky News: “It’s been very surreal.

“We have been waiting for this moment for about five years now and my dad has not seen the light of day for that long.

“Tonight we’re happy that he will be reunited with us and finally be able to sleep in a comfortable bed”, she added.

Mr Ashoori had been held by Iranian authorities on charges of spying for Israel – allegations he denies.

Anoosheh Ashoori: ‘We are one breath away from death in this circle of hell’

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Negotiations to free British-Iranian ‘going right to the wire’, PM says

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Did deal over £400m tank debt secure British-Iranian mother’s freedom?

His daughter added: “Despite all the obstacles that we faced, we finally reached this day through campaigning and though his own sacrifices – because he did sacrifice his health and his safety to send out recordings from prison through COVID to display the horrible conditions that there were happening in prison.”

Sherry Izadi, Mr Ashoori’s wife, told Sky News she thinks her husband will go “full force” into campaigning for those left behind in Iran.

She continued: “Honestly we have missed doing so many ordinary things together, we’ve missed birthdays, we’ve missed Christmases.

Read more: What we know about the deal that secured her freedom

“We’ve missed walking the dog, taking a simple holiday, sitting together drinking a cup of coffee, just walking hand in hand in our local park.

“All of this we have to start all over again. We have to pick up life where it was left off very abruptly and just try and find a semblance of the life that we had been sort of been on hiatus from for the last five years.”

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