CHARITY worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe wishes her temporary release from an Iranian jail had never happened, her husband has revealed.

In an open letter to Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Richard Ratcliffe also says his wife has "numbness in her legs" after suffering two panic attacks on her return to prison.

He has now described his wife's hasty return to jail as “a cruel game” revealing even the prison guards "cried".

He writes: "She wished she had never been released. She said she felt like one of the radical Islamists' captives - as though she had been paraded on the balcony then hidden back away.

"After that call, Nazanin collapsed, the result of two panic attacks. She still has numbness in her legs."

He said the family feels "held together by sellotape".

The mum was arrested in April 2016 for "plotting to overthrow the Iranian regime" and was convicted last year, despite her constant denials.

Mr Ratcliffe thanks Mr Zarif for enabling Nazanin to spend a precious few days with her daughter Gabriella,.

However he also points out that his wife was given 10 minutes' notice of her release, and had to use a passerby's phone to call her family.

And he says that as Nazanin was being temporarily let go, "her interrogator called her father in to privately warn him that the British Embassy should not visit her, if she wanted to stay safe".

Mr Ratcliffe earlier told of the family's agony after his wife was hauled back into an Iranian jail after a too brief reunion with her daughter.

The 39-year-old spent just three days with her four-year-old Gabriella and was given hope there would be an extension to her release from prison.

However, despite promises from prosecutors that her furlough from jail would be extended, hours later she was back behind bars.

Richard said: "Nazanin waited for Gabriella to wake up before saying goodbye, and left her family home to return to Evin prison.

"She promised Gabriella that the next time she saw her it would be forever not just for a few days, for proper freedom, not just for furlough. And next time they will go back to London to be with daddy."

Nazanin decided to go into the prison voluntarily rather than be dragged out of the house in front of Gabriella when the Iranian authorities refused to prolong her release.

Earlier she was clearly overjoyed to be out of custody, Richard revealed in an interview with Radio 4 this morning.

He said: "She was euphoric on the first day and the second day at just being out of prison and seeing the family.

"I spoke to her on Skype (it was) the first time I had seen her in more than two years. She had a big grin on her face."

However, when she headed back to prison her husband said it felt like the family had hit a "brick wall."

Jeremy Hunt has given her case o greater priority than his predecessor as Foreign Secretary, the imprisoned charity worker's husband has said.

He praised Mr Hunt for being "clear and critical" about his wife's case, after she voluntarily returned to prison in Iran following an emotional family reunion over the weekend.

Mr Ratcliffe, of Hampstead, north London, suggested there had been a change in the relationship with Iran since Mr Hunt replaced Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary last month.

And he said he had "sensed a change in the way he has prioritised Nazanin's case".

"I think one of my complaints with the Government was that it didn't feel like it was sort of treating her case with the public severity that I thought it deserved," he said.

Mr Ratcliffe added: "In terms of how the relationship with Iran has changed, well clearly she got out for a few days, that's a pretty good sign and there have been some other improvements."

On Sunday, Mr Hunt said he had spoken to Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday but that it "clearly wasn't enough".

Vowing to continue the fight, he tweeted: "Looks like Iranian legal system is impervious to the simple fact at the heart of this: an innocent woman is desperate to be reunited with her family."

Richard, who has been unable to get an Iranian visa, said his wife's temporary release initially appeared to be a "very good sign", but said it felt "pretty cruel at the end of it".

Touching images taken earlier this week showed her cradling Gabriella in her arms in Damavand at the start of her release from prison.

She was also seen kissing her daughter, who famously asked former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to help free her mum.

Kate Allen, UK Director of human rights group Amnesty International said Nazanin's return to prison was a "crushing disappointment."

She said: "We shouldn’t lose sight of what Nazanin has had to endure - nearly two-and-a-half years behind bars, eight gruelling months of solitary confinement without a lawyer, a deeply unfair trial, and also being subjected to a string of unfounded accusations from the Iranian authorities."

The human rights campaigner added that Nazanin was a "prisoner of conscience who should never have been jailed" and called on the Government to do everything it can to secure her release.