Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed from Iran custody, returning to UK

London, Mar 16 (EFE).- British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been released from detention in Iran and permitted to return to the United Kingdom six years after she was arrested, UK officials confirmed Wednesday.

“Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home,” Tulip Siddiq, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s local MP and a leading figure in the campaign for her release from custody in Iran, said on Twitter.

“I came into politics to make a difference, and right now I’m feeling like I have,” she added.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by Iranian authorities in 2016 after visiting her family with her then 22-month-old daughter.

She was later sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly plotting against the Iranian regime, a charge she and her family have denied.

in 2021, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to another year in prison and banned from leaving Iran for a year after fresh propaganda charges were brought against.

Campaigners have linked Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention to an unpaid 400 million pound ($523m) tank deal the UK made with former Iranian shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Anoosheh Ashoori, an Iranian-British businessman, was also released on Wednesday, Tehran authorities said, according to British media.EFE

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