Two British Iranians arrived in the UK early Thursday morning (2022.3.1.3) after years of ordeal in Iran, where they were imprisoned on charges of sedition and espionage, which they denied.
Parallel to the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, and Anousha Ashouri, 67, London announced that it had repaid an old debt with Tehran of 394 million pounds ($518 million), although no connection between the two events was proven.
The two landed at RAF Brize Norton in southwest England at 0108 (local time and GMT) after a layover in Oman. The two looked relaxed and smiling as they waved to the cameras before heading into the airport.
An Iranian judicial spokesperson, quoting an Iranian judicial spokesperson, reported that the retired engineer Anusheh Ashouri, who was arrested in Iran in August 2017 while visiting his mother and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of spying for Israel, was “released” due to his “advanced age and physical condition.” “. Fars News Agency.
British MP Tulip Seddik said on Twitter that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was jailed for sedition in 2016, would “come home”, before Boris Johnson’s government confirmed Monday’s return.
“We can go back to being a normal family,” said Richard Ratcliffe, who fought tirelessly for years for the British executive to secure the release of his wife, whose case has shocked the country.
Relatives have long deplored that both were held hostage until the British government repaid £394 million in debt for the sale of canceled tanks when the Islamic revolution overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979.
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