Two British-Iranians arrive in England after being liberated by Tehran.

Two British-Iranians arrived in England on Thursday morning after years of trials in Iran, where they were imprisoned for incitement and espionage they denied.

In parallel with the release of 43-year-old Nazanin Jagari-Ratcliffe and 67-year-old Anouche Ashri, London announced that it had settled an old debt of £340 million ($518 million) to Tehran, although it did not establish any connection between the two events.

The two landed on 01H08 (local and GMT) at RAF Brize Norton air base in southwestern England after a stopover in Oman. The two were relaxed, smiling, and waved their cameras before heading to the airfield.

The retired engineer Anooosheh Ashoori was arrested during a visit to his mother in Iran in August 2017 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage in favor of Israel and was “released” due to “old age and physical condition,” reported an Iranian judicial spokesman quoted by the Fars news agency.

Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe, who was sentenced to prison for incitement in 2016, was also “returning home,” said British congressman Tulip Siddiq on Twitter before the Boris Johnson government confirmed his return.

“We can return to a normal family,” said Richard Ratcliffe, who fought tirelessly for years by the British administration to secure the release of his wife.

“I am relieved that the problem has been solved. The government has two jobs (...) to do what it takes to do what it takes to take people home and get those involved to learn lessons so that it doesn't happen again. I think you have it.” He told the camera at the door of the house with the couple's daughter Gabriella, 7.

Their relatives have always reported that they were both held hostage until the British government settled a debt of 399 million pounds on tank sales that were canceled when the Islamic Revolution overthrew Iran's Shah in 1979.

Johnson's enforcement denied that the detention of these and others in Iran was related to that debt.

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss justified the delay in payment of international sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program.

However, after Siddiq tweeted a photo of a smiling Nazanin aboard a plane on Wednesday, London announced that the debt had been resolved.

Trusses said “British and international sanctions (...) These funds will only be used for the purchase of humanitarian goods.”

- “Used” in Tehran -

Sacha Deshmukh, head of the oenegé Amnesty International, said: “Nazanin and Anouche should not be arrested, they were imprisoned for false accusations of national security, which is a common tactic for Iran.”

They added that it was “used as a pawn” by the Iranian authorities, who “acted with calculated cruelty, trying to obtain maximum diplomatic value from captivity.”

His return puts an end to many years of trials.

The 43-year-old Zaghari-Ratcliffe, project manager of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charitable branch of the eponymous news agency, was detained while traveling to Tehran to visit her family with her daughter.

Accused of conspiracy to overthrow the Islamic Republic, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

A few years later, Zaghari-Ratcliffe, separated from a young girl who took care of her grandparents until she returned to London, reported unfair treatment in prison, suffered a hunger strike, suffered depression and had to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

After serving her first sentence, she was sentenced to another year in April for participating in a rally in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009.

And in October, the Ministry of Justice rejected the appeal after raising fears of new imprisonment after being under house arrest in March 2020 after the pandemic.

In the image posted on the Instagram of her daughter Ashuori, you can see the reunion of 7-year-old Gabriela and her mother.

“Is it Mom?... Mom!” , he screams when he recognizes her, runs towards her and throws it into her arm. “Does it smell good?” “I haven't taken a shower for 24 hours,” says Zagari-Ratcliffe.