London MP: Nazanin Given her British Passport Back

The lawyer of detained dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said he was tentatively hopeful of a breakthrough as it emerged her British passport has been returned to her.

Nazanin has been held hostage in Iran on fabricated spying charges since mid-2016, between Evin Prison and house arrest with an ankle tag. She recently completed a second one-year sentence – officially for “propaganda against the regime” – brought against her by the judiciary just before her first five-year jail term was due to expire. Speaking to Reuters on Monday, Nazanin’s Iranian lawyer Hojjat Kermani said: “I am hopeful we will have good news soon.”
Also on Monday, the family’s local member of parliament in London, Tulip Siddiq, reported that Tehran had relinquished the charity worker’s passport, sparking fresh hopes that she could be coming home soon. “She is still at her family home in Tehran,” Siddiq wrote. “I also understand that there is a British negotiating team in Tehran right now.”

The mother-of-one is widely understood to be being held over a £400 million debt Tehran claims it is owed relating to a cancelled order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks made during the Pahlavi era. The tanks were never delivered to Iran after the Islamic Revolution brought a new, avowedly anti-West regime to power. The UK government has been reluctant to refer to Nazanin as a hostage in public and last November, Siddiq was told not to refer to the matter of the debt in parliament due to ongoing legal proceedings in the High Court.

There were also unconfirmed reports on Monday, including from IRGC-affiliated social media accounts, that Britain had paid that £400m to Iran in exchange for the release of both Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and fellow British-Iranian citizen Anousheh Ashouri.

No Iranian or British official has yet commented on these reports. Iranian state media had claimed as far back as last May that Britain had agreed to pay, at a time when the Foreign Office said talks were still ongoing. Nazanin’s sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe told the BBC on Monday it was hard to tell "if this is a really positive sign or just the Iranian government playing games again".

Related coverage:

Iranian Study Denies Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's British Citizenship

Three Iranians Involved in Hostage-Taking Named in UK Parliament

British-Iranian Hostages' Families Support Each Other Through London Hunger Strike

Judiciary Says Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe “Should Thank the Islamic Republic”

Revolutionary Court Sentences Nazanin to Another Year Behind Bars

Nazanin Awaiting Verdict After Final Hearing in Revolutionary Court

Nazanin's Husband: Hostage-Taking by Iran Must End