A British grandfather has begun his seventh year in prison in Iran after being jailed on spying charges.

Kamal Foroughi, 77, was arrested in 2011 before he was convicted two years later of espionage and possessing alcohol charges and is due to be released next year.

The oil and gas company consultant’s family - who live in Hertsmere - have long maintained his innocence and have campaigned for his released from Evin Prison.

Mr Foroughi is a dual-nationality citizen and is being held in the same prison as charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian mother, who is also accused of being a Western spy.

Earlier this year, his son, Kamran, who is from delivered a letter to Boris Johnson, signed by 219 MPs and peers, calling for his release.

The Foreign Office has said it has raised the pair’s individual cases with the Iranian government ‘and will continue to do so at every opportunity’.

Watford Observer:

The grandfather is due to be released in 2018 (Picture: Kamran Foroughi)

Kamran said the 72 months and 2,193 days his father has been in jail felt ‘like a lifetime’.

His father has been taken to hospital five times in the recent months and his family remained concerned for his health.

"We still remember May 2011 like it was yesterday: the shock and confusion we all faced," he wrote.

"I was trying to get in touch with Dad to tell him we’d won tickets in the ballot for Wimbledon tennis.

"I tried emailing/calling and for the first time ever he didn’t reply. No one in Iran wanted to explain to us what was going on."

He added: "The problem is the lack of reliability in information from Iran.

"Dad’s been eligible for release every day since January 2014 (over 1,200 days), we keep getting told he’s about to be released, and no one can explain what’s going on, why he’s still there.

"So how long before Dad comes out of prison? Who knows, it could be tomorrow, it could be never."

More than 200,000 have signed a petition calling for his release.