Nazanin Zaghari and Anoosheh Ashoori on Their Way Home; Their Plane Has Left Oman Bound for Britain
Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, Iranian-British dual nationals who were imprisoned, are on their way back to their home in Britain after years of detention.
Tulip Siddiq, a British Member of Parliament, announced via a tweet that the plane carrying Nazanin Zaghari has taken off for Britain and will land in the UK within hours.
Earlier, Liz Truss, British Foreign Secretary, had stated that they would return to Britain today. Ms. Truss also said that Morad Tahbaz has been released from prison on bail.
Tulip Siddiq had previously expressed satisfaction at Ms. Zaghari’s release by resharing a photo of Nazanin Zaghari on a plane leaving Iran.
The lawyers of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori reported hours before the transfer of the two to an airport in Tehran to leave the country.
The release of these two dual-national prisoners occurred after a British delegation traveled to Tehran on Tuesday, March 15, for negotiations.
On Tuesday, Hojjat Kermani, lawyer of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, a dual-national prisoner in Iran, told Reuters that “we hope to hear good news soon.”
Nazanin Zaghari is a 43-year-old Iranian-British citizen who was detained in 1395 (2016) while leaving Iran and subsequently faced security charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. Ms. Zaghari was temporarily released from prison in 1399 (2020) during the coronavirus pandemic, but a year later the court sentenced her to another punishment.
Anoosheh Ashoori, a 68-year-old British-Iranian citizen, was detained in Mordad of 1396 (August 2017) during a family trip to Iran and after a trial that Amnesty International called “unfair,” was imprisoned on charges related to national security.
Morad Tahbaz is one of the multi-national prisoners. He is a citizen of Iran, Britain, and the United States and one of seven environmental activists who was arrested in Bahman 1396 (January-February 2018) and transferred to Evin Prison. Morad Tahbaz was introduced as one of the members of the Asiatic cheetah protection project during Masoumeh Ebtekar’s tenure as head of the Environment Organization.
Among other dual nationals or foreigners detained in Iran, mention can be made of Siamak and Baquer Namazi, Emad Shargi (Iranian-American citizens), Mehrdad Raouf, Ahmadreza Jalali (Iranian-Swedish researcher), Masoud Mousavi and Kamran Ghaderi (Iranian-Austrian citizens), Fariba Adelkhah (Iranian-French citizen) and Nahid Taghavi (Iranian-German citizen), as well as Benjamin Briere, a French tourist.
Source: Voice of America
