Iran frees British-Iranian aid worker after five-year sentence

Iran has released British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told Iranian website Emtedad, after her five-year prison sentence for plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

"She was pardoned by Iran's Supreme Leader last year, but spent the last year of her term under house arrest with electronic shackles tied to her feet. Now they're cast off," Kermani told the website. "She has been freed."

Iran's judiciary officials have yet to comment about the release.

It was not immediately clear whether she was allowed to leave Iran. 

Kermani was quoted as saying that "a hearing for Zaghari's second case has been scheduled at branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran" according to the website.

"We welcome the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag, but Iran continues to put her and her family through a cruel and an intolerable ordeal," British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said in a statement following the news. 

"She must be released permanently so she can return to her family in the UK. We will continue to do all we can to achieve this. We have relayed to the Iranian authorities in the strongest possible terms that her continued confinement is unacceptable." 

READ MORE: The UK government has not done enough for Nazanin Zahgari-Ratcliffe

Ankle tag removed

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe told Sky News on Sunday she was "pleased" her ankle tag had been removed but said the news was "mixed" from Iran after she was summoned to court next Sunday.

"Richard Ratcliffe says Nazanin is "pleased" the ankle tag is off #nazanin," Sky News reporter Lisa Holland said on Twitter. 

"Richard Ratcliffe has told me the news today is "mixed". The ankle tag is off but Nazanin has to appear in court again next Sunday in a second case."

Five-year sentence

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 as she prepared to head back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.

She was later sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran's clerical establishment. 

Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters, deny the charge.

She was released from jail in March last year and put under house arrest in Tehran in response to concerns about the spread of Covid-19 in Iran's prisons, but her movements were restricted and she was barred from leaving the country. 

British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq also said on Sunday she had spoken to the family of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and that they told her she had had her ankle tag removed, but has been summoned again to court.

"I have been in touch with Nazanin's family. Some news: 1)Thankfully her ankle tag has been removed. Her first trip will be to see her grandmother. 2) Less positive - she has been summoned once again to court next Sunday," Siddiq, who is the member of parliament for where Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to live, said on Twitter.

READ MORE: Tehran imposes new charge on UK-Iranian citizen Zaghari-Ratcliffe