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On Wednesday, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s native UK Member of Parliament Tulip Siddiq tweeted a photograph of her on board a aircraft saying she is now on her method dwelling.
“It has been 6 lengthy years – and I can not consider I can FINALLY share this picture,” wrote Siddiq. “Nazanin is now within the air flying away from 6 years of hell in Iran.”
UK Overseas Secretary Liz Truss mentioned in a tweet that Zaghari-Ratcliffe and fellow British Iranian nationwide Anoosheh Ashoori “will likely be reunited with their households later as we speak.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed their launch as “large achievements” for British diplomacy. “I pay tribute to the tireless efforts of those that have labored for six years to make as we speak’s occasions doable,” Johnson wrote in a tweet.
This comes as Truss introduced that the UK had settled a decades-old £400 million ($524 million) debt owed to Iran, which Iran’s Overseas Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian denied was linked to the prisoner launch.
“After extremely advanced and exhaustive negotiations, the greater than 40-year-old debt between the Worldwide Army Providers and the Ministry of Protection of Iran has now been settled,” Truss mentioned in assertion to Parliament.
The debt is for undelivered armored autos and tanks, initially ordered by Iran however canceled by the UK in response to the Iranian revolution of 1979, in line with a analysis briefing revealed by the Home of Commons Library.
Iran’s state-run Press TV mentioned that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been handed over to the UK authorities, with out offering any additional particulars. The nation’s semi-official Fars information company mentioned she was being transferred to Tehran’s worldwide airport, Imam Khomenei, with a British negotiating staff.
On Wednesday, Hojjat Kermani, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyer, informed CNN he didn’t wish to touch upon the newest developments for now.
He earlier informed Reuters that Zaghari-Ratcliffe and one other detained British-Iranian, Anousheh Ashouri, have been “on their approach to the airport in Tehran to go away Iran.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan mentioned he was “delighted” that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been free of “wrongful imprisonment” in a press release Wednesday.
“Nazanin and her family members have proven nice braveness, energy and steadfastness throughout what has been an unimaginably tough time, and I wish to pay tribute to all those that have campaigned tirelessly for her launch,” mentioned Khan. “London seems ahead to welcoming her dwelling.”
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe mentioned the discharge of his spouse means they will “begin being a standard household once more.”
Talking to reporters in London, Ratcliffe mentioned he hadn’t but spoken to his spouse however that they’d exchanged messages on Wednesday.
He mentioned she bought picked up by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at 11:00 a.m. native time (3:30 a.m ET) and that though she “wasn’t actually allowed to talk” he was conscious of her actions.
“Her homecoming is a journey not an arrival. There will likely be a complete course of and hopefully we’ll look again in years to come back and we will likely be a standard household,” Ratcliffe continued.
On Wednesday, a marketing campaign group which pushed for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s launch thanked Siddiq, the household’s member of parliament, for her work on the case.
“You’ve got made a distinction @TulipSiddiq! Thanks for all of the superb help you have got given to #FreeNazanin over these 6 lengthy years,” the group wrote on Twitter.
Husband’s starvation strikes
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was first detained at a Tehran airport in April 2016 following a trip to see her household along with her daughter.
She was accused of working with organizations allegedly trying to overthrow the Iranian regime and was later convicted and sentenced to 5 years in jail.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her employer, the Thomson Reuters Basis, have repeatedly denied the espionage prices towards her.
In April 2021 she was handed a second jail sentence and journey ban on prices of spreading propaganda towards the regime, and misplaced an enchantment on her case in October.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was given British diplomatic safety in 2019 and was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty Worldwide.
She undertook at the very least three starvation strikes throughout her detention, considered one of them in a determined bid to hunt medical therapy for lumps in her breasts and numbness in her limbs.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe has additionally carried out starvation strikes in solidarity together with his spouse.
The couple’s daughter, Gabriella, who was simply 22 months previous on the time of her mom’s arrest, is now virtually eight.
In 2019, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s supporters mentioned she was transferred to the psychological ward of a hospital in Tehran and was being denied visits from her father.
In February 2020, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s household mentioned she believed she had contracted Covid-19 in Evin Jail outdoors Tehran.
CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali, Vasco Cotovio, Nada Bashir, Sarra Alayyan, Zeena Saifi and Lauren Stated-Moorhouse contributed to this report.
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