Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has denied all the shifting charges against her, accusing the Iranian government of using her as a diplomatic pawn.
Mr. Ashoori was also taken to the airport, Miran Hassan, a spokesman for Mr. Ashoori’s family, said, but he said he would not say Mr. Ashoori had been released until he was out of Iranian airspace.
Mr. Ashoori, 67, a retired engineer, was arrested in 2017 while visiting his mother in Iran after a visit in Britain, a trip he had made several times, according to family members and campaigners who had been working to free him.
He was accused of spying for Israel among other charges and sentenced in 2019 to a 12-year prison sentence in Evin prison in Tehran. His family has called the charges “bogus” and said that Mr. Ashoori was being used as a bargaining chip between Britain and Iran.
Rights groups welcomed the apparent releases but called them long overdue. “Nazanin and Anoosheh have unquestionably been used as political pawns by the Iranian authorities — and the Iranian authorities have acted with calculated cruelty, seeking to wring the maximum diplomatic value out of their captivity,” said Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International U.K.
He called on the government to renew calls to release two other people with British and Iranian citizenship, Morad Tahbaz and Mehran Raoof, who remain in Iranian custody. Mr. Tahbaz also holds American citizenship.
Mr. Ratcliffe has said that Iranian officials had in the past told Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe that she would be released once Britain repaid a debt of 400 million pounds, or about $522 million, to Iran related to the 1976 arms deal. Western countries, including the United States, have accused Iran of using their citizens as leverage over debts.
Megan Specia contributed reporting from Warsaw, and Emma Bubola from London.
Source : Nytimes
