Detained British-Iranian Zaghari-Ratcliffe has UK passport returned

London, Mar 15 (EFE).- British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been imprisoned for alleged espionage in Iran since 2016, has had her British passport returned, an official said Tuesday.

British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq added in a tweet that a negotiation team from the UK was currently in Tehran.

“I am very pleased to say that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back,” the MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s London constituency, said.

“She is still at her family home in Tehran,” she added.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested while visiting her family in Iran in 2016 and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Iranian government, which she has denied.

A widely-held belief among those familiar with the case is that her arrest is linked to a 400 million pound payment the UK pledged to make to the former Iranian shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution. EFE

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