A British national who spent four years on death row in Ethiopia has arrived back in the UK after being pardoned last month.
Supporters surrounded Andargachew Tsege, known as Andy, as he walked through arrivals at Heathrow Airport.
Mr Tsege said he did not think the campaign to free him and the welcome he got would be “as large, as emotional, as effective as this”.
Being away had been “terrible”, he added, and very hard on his family.
Missing four years of his children growing up had been the “most painful thing”.
“The price they paid, the kids, that’s very painful,” he said.
Were he not a father, Mr Tsege said he would not have minded dying in prison for a “cause I believed in”.
While in detention, he said he was “completely sealed off” from any information.
Mr Tsege was kidnapped in Yemen in 2014 and taken to Ethiopia, which he left in the 1970s after criticising the country’s ruling party.
The father-of-three sought asylum in the UK in 1979.
In 2009, he was accused by the Ethiopian authorities of being a terrorist, tried with others in his absence and sentenced to death.
After being taken back to Ethiopia, he was held in secret detention and solitary confinement for a year.
Theresa May has thanked her Ethiopian counterpart, Abiy Ahmed, for the release of Mr Tsege and other prisoners.
I can now say that my prayers have been graciously answered. I am happy for Obbo Andargachew Tsige and even more for his angelic children. There is better telling those kids than saying ‘Daddy is coming home’. This is something only fathers and mothers can understand and know very well. Now he is back in Britain his full time and only job will be raising his children with that gallant mother. She fought tooth and nail for his freedom. I don’t want hear this ‘I am going to Asmara’ anymore. He does not belong there. He will have a huge responsibility of raising his children and that is it. I Praise The Lord Our Creator That I Am Still Around To See This Day. I am very happy now!!! Praise The Lord!!!! Alhamdulillah!!!!