Nazanin Zaghari, British iranian woman is released
The Islamic Republic accused Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe of being a spy. Her family and the UK deny this.
INSIDER – Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman who had been detained by Iran since 2016, was released Wednesday, March 16, 2022. As of Wednesday morning UK time, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was in the air departing Tehran, due to return to the United Kingdom late in the evening via Oman.
Anoosheh Ashoori, another British-Iranian dual national held by Iran, was also released and on his way out of the country. He was sentenced to ten years in jail in 2019 and accused of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and “acquiring illegitimate wealth,” claims that he denies.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confirmed Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori’s release Wednesday and said they were both returning to the UK. Tulip Siddiq, the member of parliament for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency, tweeted: “Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home. I came into politics to make a difference, and right now I’m feeling like I have.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager at the Thomson Reuters Foundation — a charity that does not work directly with the news agency — was arrested in Iran in 2016 and accused of being a spy.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken to Tehran airport in April 2016 when she was returning home to London with her young daughter after visiting her parents.
Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, and Mr. Ashoori, 67, finally left Tehran on Wednesday after their release was secured following months of negotiations and arrived England on Thursday, March 17.
