When Will Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Be Released?

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released in March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic and kept under house arrest.

In March 2021, she was released from house arrest but she was summoned to court again on the new charge of ‘propaganda against Iran’.

In April 2021, she was then sentenced to a new one-year term in jail. However that sentence has not yet started and she is banned from leaving the country.

Her MP Tulip Siddiq confirmed today that Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s British passport has been returned. with a British negotiating team believed to be in Tehran.

Local reports said she would likely return to London via Muscat following a phone call between Iran’s foreign minister and his Omani counterpart.

Iranian officials did not comment when asked whether the amount has been paid by Britain as reported by some Iranian outlets.

There are also claims fellow British-Iranian prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori could be released in the coming days.

Ms Siddiq said: ‘I am very pleased to say that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back,

‘She is still at her family home in Tehran. I also understand that there is a British negotiating team in Tehran right now.’

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, warned that the latest reports should be treated with caution as there had been ‘false dawn after false dawn’ in the long-running process.