After emerging from months of lock-up in a Tehran prison, an Iranian-Canadian journalist is back home in London just in time to see the birth of his first child.
Maziar Bahari, released Saturday on $300,000 bail, has been reunited with his wife who was rushed to hospital during her difficult pregnancy and who is slated to undergo a caesarean section.
"We are relieved that Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari is home with his family today," Bahari's employer, Newsweek magazine, said in a statement Tuesday.
"We would like to thank all of those who supported Maziar through this long and uncertain period."
Bahari was arrested June 21 in a government crackdown following historic protests that erupted in the streets after Iran's disputed presidential elections.
He was one of more than 100 opposition figures, activists and journalists detained following the protests.
Demonstrators claimed the election was rigged in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Iranian-born Canadian citizen was kept in solitary confinement during the four months he spent in Tehran's Evin prison.
Newsweek said "humanitarian considerations" were believed to have played a role in his release.
The magazine said Bahari is now with his wife, Paola Gourley, who has been hospitalized because of serious health complications due to a difficult pregnancy.
Relatives say she was rushed to hospital in an ambulance last week after suffering what they described as bleeding due to stress. She is scheduled to have a caesarean section on Monday.
Bahari's nephew said he found out Monday that his uncle was supposed to fly to London from Iran.
He hasn't spoken to his uncle yet, but hopes to do so soon.
"We're all pretty happy and excited about it," Agah Bahari, said in an interview from Vancouver.
"It was a very stressful couple of months for all of us and (I'm) looking forward to seeing him, Paola and the baby as soon as possible."
Bahari said considering all that his uncle has been through, he's supposedly doing "alright."
"I mean obviously you can't be all good mentally after 100-something days in jail in Iran," he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday that Canadians are relieved to hear that Bahari has joined Gourley's side.
"The Government of Canada had been steadfast in demanding Mr. Bahari's release from his unjustified detention by Iranian authorities," Harper said in a statement.
"We can only imagine what Mr. Bahari has been through during the past months and the anguish that his wife has experienced during this difficult period."
Harper said it's important not to forget the "countless others" who are still unjustly detained in Iran for political reasons.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had both pleaded for Bahari's release.
Newsweek spokesman Frank De Maria said Iranian officials gave Bahari permission to return to the U.K. on Tuesday.
De Maria could not immediately say whether Bahari still faces charges in Iran or if he has any plans to return to the country.
He said the couple would not be available for comment Tuesday, saying they wanted some time alone together "after their long and trying separation."
Gourley, an Italian-English lawyer working in London, has said that her husband maintained a "great working relationship" with the Iranian government and worked hard to promote a better understanding of the country.
In an August interview with The Canadian Press, Gourley said she was "so desperately sad" to think that Bahari might miss the birth of their first child.
"It makes me upset to think about where Maziar is right now, what he's going through (and) that the baby might be born possibly without his father there," she said.
Earlier that month, Bahari had appeared in a mass trial along with others who were arrested during the protests.
Iranian news agencies reported that Bahari admitted during the trial that Western news organizations had tried to influence events in the country after the election.
The government accused him of filming violence in the streets, even though Newsweek contends the state gave him permission to do so.
Shortly after the trial, Newsweek foreign editor Nisid Hajari said Bahari's admission didn't square with the dedicated, balanced journalist who's worked for the magazine since 1998.
"They (the Iranian government) have a narrative they are interested in pushing," Hajari said of Bahari's courtroom statements.
"What he's saying conforms to that narrative."
Bahari was born in Iran but later emigrated to Canada, where he obtained Canadian citizenship earned a communications degree from Montreal's Concordia University.
He still keeps a residence in downtown Toronto.
