Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is on her way to home and will touch down in the UK tonight after six years imprisoned in Iran, her lawyers and UK government sources have confirmed.
The mother-of-one was booked on a flight to London along with British–Iranian businessman Anoosheh Ashoori, their lawyer Hojjat Kermani said.
MP Tulip Sidiq tweeted out a picture of a smiling Zaghari-Ratcliffe onboard a flight out of Tehran.
She said: 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.”
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Boris Johnson also tweeted to confirm the news and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said” what a massive ray of sunshine this would be in an otherwise dark world and such a tribute to those who have campaigned long and hard for this moment.”
Iranian state television announced Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “handed over to the British government,” without elaborating.
Iran’s English-language broadcaster Press TV later described Zaghari-Ratcliffe as “leaving Tehran after serving jail term.”
It follows days of tense negotiations between the UK Government and Tehran over their release.
Her release and that of another British-Iranian prisoner, Anoosheh Ashoori, is understood to have been subject to a deal in which the UK agrees to repay a £400million debt to Iran.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds duel British-Iranian citizenship, was arrested in 2016 on trumped up charges of plotting against the regime.
She served five years in an Iranian prison and has spent the past year on parole at her parents’ home in Tehran in fear she could be sent back to jail at any time.
On Tuesday, she was handed back her British passport and was reportedly told a flight would be “arranged for her” on Wednesday so she could rejoin her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella, seven, in Hampstead.
The couple’s MP, Labour’s Tulip Siddiq tweeted on Wednesday: “Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home. I came into politics to make a difference, and right now I’m feeling like I have.”
Earlier, during a visit to Abu Dhabi, Boris Johnson said negotiations over the charity workers release were “going right up to the wire”.
“It is true and it has been for a long time that we’re negotiating for the release of our dual nationals in Tehran," the Prime Minister said.
“I really don’t think I should say much more, I’m sorry, although things are moving forward."
“I shouldn’t really say much more because those negotiations continue to be under way and we’re going right up to the wire.”
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