Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Returns Home After Being Freed From Iran | Know More On Row Involving British-Iranian
The two left Tehran on Wednesday after their release was secured following months of negotiations.
New Delhi: British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe reunited with her family in the UK after years of detention in Iran.
She arrived along with dual national Anoosheh Ashoori at the British military airbase of Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, shortly after 1 a.m. local time, after flying back via a brief stopover in Oman, Reuters reported.
The two left Tehran on Wednesday after their release was secured following months of negotiations.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss shortly after their arrival at the base said “it has been a really difficult 48 hours”.
“The expectation was that they would be released but we weren't sure right until the last minute so it's been very emotional but also a really happy moment for the families,” he added, Reuters reported.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his delight on their release.
“I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the UK,” he tweeted.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was detained for six years after being accused in 2016 of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.
She was sentenced to a further year in prison in April last year and a one-year travel ban on charges of propaganda against the government, BBC reported.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe had rubbished the charges levelled against her.
Her husband Richard said the long ordeal appeared to be finally over.
“It's just a relief, the idea that we can go back to being a normal family, that we don't have to keep fighting, that this long journey is almost over,” he told Reuters.
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