Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, came back home to the UK after being imprisoned in Iran for 6 years
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe came back to her home in the UK after spending nearly six years imprisoned in Iran's capital Tehran. Why was she arrested in the first place and what has this got to do with a 400-million-pound debt owed by the UK to Iran?
Here are 10 points on her release:
- Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born in Tehran and worked as an English Teacher before her marriage to British National Richard Ratcliffe, after which she moved to London.
- Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a 43-year-old project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the media and data agency.
- She was arrested on April 3, 2016 by Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the Tehran airport and was accused of plotting to overthrow the regime in the Islamic republic, which she denied.
- Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years of imprisonment where she spent many days in isolation as well.
- Her family has stated that they believe she was being held as a political prisoner until a debt between Britain and Iran was settled.
- The UK has consciously avoided saying the detention of the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other political prisoners held in Iran, was linked to the debt for an order of tanks that was cancelled after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
- But soon after the release was announced, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confirmed that London and Tehran had resolved the £394-million ($515-million) issue "after highly complex and exhaustive negotiations".
- Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also confirmed that Iran had received the money but added that it was "wrong to link Iran receiving its debt... to the release of these people".
- On March 14, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was given back her UK passport, according to British MP Tulip Siddiq.
- Zaghari-Ratcliffe was reunited with her family on March 17 after 6 years, flying from Iran to Oman and finally to the United Kingdom.
