Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe finally heading back to UK

[1andrew1]

Some good news.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman detained in Iran nearly six years ago, has been freed and is on her way to the UK, her MP has said.

The 43-year-old was arrested in 2016 and accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denied.

Tulip Siddiq MP tweeted that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was at the airport in Tehran.

She had been under house arrest and was given her UK passport back this week.

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

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe told BBC News it was an "emotional day".

"It feels like we're on the home run now but until she leaves that airport we can't believe it," she said.

She said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been picked up and taken to the airport with her parents, who were not allowed in the room with her because she was "still under Iranian control in the airport".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60756870

[BenMcr]

Worth pointing out she's not the only one being released

https://www.theguardian.com/news/202...ention-reports

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have been released from custody, Iranian officials said on Wednesday morning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoosheh_Ashoori

Anoosheh Ashoori is a British–Iranian businessman currently detained in Iran. Iranian authorities arrested Ashoori in August 2017, when he went to the country to visit his mother

[papa smurf]

I'll wait until she's out of Iranian air space before i celebrate

[joglynne]

I agree with papa.

I don't trust the Iranians and hope that this is not another cat and mouse game.

Wondering whom else is going to be held for ransom.

[papa smurf]

The plane has taken off
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ased-Iran.html

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Maggy

Wondering whom else is going to be held for ransom.

Ransom being their 400 million we as a country have been holding onto for well over 40 years, expect to learn that's been repaid in the coming months

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Ransom being their 400 million we as a country have been holding onto for well over 40 years, expect to learn that's been repaid in the coming months

Under the veil of the Ukraine war. Really pleased she and others have been released, though.

[BenMcr]

Third person released

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...081479aa97509d

Reuters has also snapped this.

THIRD BRITISH-IRANIAN MORAD TAHBAZ FREED FROM IRAN JAIL ON FURLOUGH - IRNA

The IRNA is the Islamic Repubic News Agency.

Tahbaz, a British-American businessman born in Hammersmith, London, who also has Iranian citizenship. As my colleague Patrick Wintour writes, Tahbaz, a conservationist, was sentenced along with eight others to 10 years in jail in November 2019 for “contacts with the US enemy government”. The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has tweeted frequently in support of his innocence, an acknowledgement that he is a British consular case.

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Ransom being their 400 million we as a country have been holding onto for well over 40 years, expect to learn that's been repaid in the coming months

Get away with it once and expect to see another attempt made on another poor hostage.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Maggy

Get away with it once and expect to see another attempt made on another poor hostage.

Do we have another outstanding debt that we owe Iran?

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Maggy

Get away with it once and expect to see another attempt made on another poor hostage.

Yes I rather think we thought we'd got away with their cash after it was just resting in our account so long, terrible for the innocent people involved, pawns in national squabbles

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Ransom being their 400 million we as a country have been holding onto for well over 40 years, expect to learn that's been repaid in the coming months

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60756870

The government has said it also settled a debt of almost £400m owed to Iran from the 1970s, with the funds ring-fenced solely for humanitarian purposes.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Ransom being their 400 million we as a country have been holding onto for well over 40 years, expect to learn that's been repaid in the coming months

Paying a ligitamate debt is a ransom?

Iran's Shah paid up front for 1,750 Chieftain tanks and other vehicles, only 189 tanks were delivered.

After years of private negotiations, in 1990 Iran made a claim for its money back for the undelivered weaponry by taking the UK to international arbitration in The Hague. The UK made a counterclaim in 1996, but in an arbitration in 2001 the UK lost both claims. Iran then sought to have the award enforced in the English courts, something Britain resisted until IMS in 2002 put £350m into the UK court as security. The UK, after getting the award’s size reduced once in The Hague finally seemed to have run out of options when its final appeal was dismissed in 2009.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/202...debt-arms-deal

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by pip08456

Paying a ligitamate debt is a ransom?

Iran's Shah paid up front for 1,750 Chieftain tanks and other vehicles, only 189 tanks were delivered.



https://www.theguardian.com/news/202...debt-arms-deal

So, in summary, this poor woman has been in prison for the last how many years because our Government would not pay what they were legally obliged to. Nice ..