The Iranian regime released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and another British citizen detained in Tehran

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said the woman, who had been convicted of “plotting” against clerical power, is already on her way home, as is Anousheh Ashour

FILE PHOTO: Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is seen in an undated photograph handed out by her family. Ratcliffe Family/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS.

Iranian-British Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, detained since 2016 in Iran, where she was sentenced to prison for sedition, a charge she has always denied, is “returning” to the UK, a British deputy announced on Wednesday.

” Nazanin is at Tehran airport and on her way home,” Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said on Twitter.

Anousheh Ashour, another detained Briton, was also on his way to Tehran airport, according to the Reuters agency.

“Both are on their way to Tehran airport to leave Iran,” said lawyer Hojjat Kermani.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, project manager of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has had his British passport returned, according to Tulip Siddiq on Tuesday. She was detained at an airport in Tehran in April 2016 and later convicted by an Iranian court of conspiring to overthrow clerical power, according to the justice of the Persian country.

FILE PHOTO: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and his daughter Gabriella pose for a photo in London, Great Britain February 7, 2016. Photo taken on February 7, 2016. Karl Brandt/Courtesy of the Free Nazanin/Handout campaign via REUTERS/

His family and the foundation, a charity that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters, deny the accusation.

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who lives with their six-year-old daughter Gabriella in Hampstead, London, had been campaigning for her release, even going on a hunger strike in October last year.

Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sister-in-law, Rebecca Ratcliffe, told BBC News today is an “emotional day”.

Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was picked up and taken to the airport with her parents, who were not allowed to enter the room with her because she was “still under Iranian control at the airport”.

FILE PHOTO: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in an undated photograph given by his family. Family Ratcliffe/Handout via REUTERS

“So it's not free yet. But it definitely looks like it's about to be,” he said.

While Ashouri was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for spying for Israeli Mossad and two years for “acquiring illegitimate wealth”, according to Iranian justice.

(With information from AFP and Reuters)

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