British-Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have finally been released by Iran and are returning to the United Kingdom after years of being held in Tehran.
Their release comes after the UK government paid a $530 million debt to Iran.
A third dual national, Morad Tahbaz, has been released from prison in Iran on furlough as well.
It brings, finally, an end to a six-year ordeal for aid worker Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested in 2016 on spying charges and convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She has always denied these allegations.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in Iran in 2016 following a vacation to see her family with her daughter and has repeatedly said that she was there for personal reasons, not for work. Her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has also repeatedly denied espionage charges filed against her.
She was handed a second jail sentence in 2021 and a travel ban charge for spreading propaganda. Her appeal was lost in October 2021. In 2019, she was given British diplomatic protection. She has been considered a prisoner of consciousness by Amnesty International.
Ashoori, who is in his 60s, was accused of cooperating with a hostile government and jailed for a decade. He was held for almost five years. Tahbaz was held for four.
The release of the prisoners comes after months of intensive diplomatic negotiations between the UK and Iran.
Iran has said that the UK owed a long-overdue debt to Tehran after it canceled an order of Chieftain tanks following the overthrow of the Shah during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the money was being paid to Iran “through humanitarian channels.” Truss confirmed both Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori will return to the UK today, and be able to be reunited with their families.
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