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Iran returns passport of detained charity worker, UK MP says

March 15, 2022

Labour Party lawmaker Tulip Siddiq said she understands a British negotiating team is in Tehran, where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held under house arrest.

https://p.dw.com/p/48V0U
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and their 7-year-old daughter Gabriella, pose with a picture of wife and mother, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
The UK, along with international human rights organizations, have urged Iran to release Zaghari-RatcliffeImage: Matt Dunham/AP Photo/picture alliance

Detained British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been in Iranian custody since 2016 on suspicion of being a spy, has had her passport returned, according to her local MP.

What do we know so far?

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been given her passport, and according to her understanding, a negotiating team is currently in Iran.

"I am very pleased to say that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back," Siddiq tweeted. 

"I also understand that there is a British negotiating team in Tehran right now," she added. 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken into custody at Tehran's airport in April 2016 and convicted of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government. She, along with her supporters and human rights groups, have refuted these allegations. 

Earlier in 2021, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to an extra 12 months in prison on charges of spreading "propaganda against the system" for participating in a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009.

In October, Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband Richard Ratcliffe embarked on a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in central London, accusing the British government of not doing enough to secure his wife's release.

Ratcliffe's husband urges Boris Johnson to take responsibility

Ratcliffe says British Prime Minister Boris Johnson must take responsibility and claims "diplomatic agendas" have stalled his wife's path to freedom.

Ratcliffe had previously held a 15-day hunger strike in 2019 outside the Iranian Embassy. He says the move was previously crucial in securing the release of his 7-year-old daughter Gabriella.

At the time of Zaghari-Ratcliffe's arrest, the couple's daughter, who was 22 months old, had her passport confiscated and was staying with her grandparents in Iran.

kb/wd (AFP, AP)