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Britain on Wednesday confirmed the release by Iran of British-Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anousheh Ashouri, saying they would return to Britain later on Wednesday.
“I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anousheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the UK,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter.
A third dual-national Morad Tahbaz was released from prison in Iran on furlough, foreign minister Liz Truss said on Twitter.
“We will continue to work to secure Morad’s departure from Iran,” Truss added.
A British lawmaker in contact with Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family tweeted a picture of her smiling and said it showed her on board a plane.
“Nazanin is now in the air flying away from 6 years of hell in Iran,” the lawmaker, Tulip Siddiq said on Twitter.
It’s been 6 long years – and I can’t believe I can FINALLY share this photo.
Nazanin is now in the air flying away from 6 years of hell in Iran.
My heart goes out to Gabriella and Richard, as her long journey back home to them gets closer by the minute.#NazaninIsFree ❤️ pic.twitter.com/BzEEBP840C
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) March 16, 2022
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 and later convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.
Her family and the foundation deny the charge.
Ashouri was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019 for spying for Israel’s Mossad and two years for “acquiring illegitimate wealth”, according to Iran’s judiciary.
Earlier, Iranian state media said Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashouri were released after the UK government paid a $530 million debt to Tehran.
The historic debt was related to the sale of battle tanks to Iran’s former ruler, the Shah, before the country’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
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