Coronavirus was announced to be a global pandemic last week, with countries across the world taking extreme precautionary measures to prevent the spreading of the virus, including the release of prisoners.
Iran was one of the countries to take such actions, with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe announced to be one of the 85,000 prisoners who had been temporarily released yesterday.
The 41-year-old British-Iranian charity worker was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of espionage charges in 2016, something she has always denied.
It was announced on Tuesday that Iran had temporarily released tens of thousands of prisoners who had tested negative for the virus, with Nazanin’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, confirming that she was one of those temporarily released.
Nazanin is now required to stay within 300 metres of her parent’s Tehran house and forced to wear an ankle tag.
‘I am relieved that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was today temporarily released into the care of her family in Iran,’ Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary, announced in a statement yesterday. 'We urge the regime to ensure she receives any necessary medical care.’
‘The issue now is to make it permanent,’ Richard Ratcliffe explained of his wife’s situation. ‘It is hard to relax just yet.’
Explaining that she was ‘so happy to be out’ in a statement released through the Free Nazanin campaign, Nazanin herself announced: ‘Even with the ankle tag, I am so happy. Being out is so much better than being in - if you knew what hell this place is. It is mental. Let us hope it will be the beginning of coming home.’
We will continue to update this story.
