Fresh hope for mother jailed in Iran as new court case is delayed after UK intervenes

THE husband of imprisoned Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has hailed the “first ripple of freedom”, as a new court case against his wife was postponed.

Richard Ratcliffe said the move came in the wake of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s two-day visit to Iran where he has been seeking her release.

Mr Ratcliffe said his family has spent the weekend “watching closely with hope”, as Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she could now “see some light”.

Yesterday Mr Johnson held talks with president Hassan Rouhani, where they “both spoke forthrightly”, and with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday which was “frank and constructive”.

“I said I thought that if the Foreign Secretary had a good Saturday, we might have a good Sunday, with a court case postponed,” Mr Ratcliffe said in a statement.

“And so it has come to pass. Today is one of the good days in the past 20 months. This weekend we had our first ripple of freedom, with the postponement of Nazanin’s new court case. Of course who knows what lies ahead, the past 20 months have had plenty of false turns — but my hope is that the ripple in the days ahead might become a full change of tide.

“My hope today is as Nazanin once wrote: Freedom feels one day closer, that Christmas dream remains.”

Mr Ratcliffe said that just a month ago he was “cursing” Mr Johnson, but added that “to date he has been as good as his word”.

“He did get to Iran, he did get there before her court case, and that did make a difference,” he added.

“Of course, one Swallow doesn’t make a Christmas — Nazanin is not yet on a plane. But it is good to have at least a Swallow in the sky.”

The news came as it remained unclear whether Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe would be taken back to court on Sunday following threats to increase her sentence by five years after Mr Johnson incorrectly told a parliamentary committee that she had been in Iran to train journalists.

Mother-of-one, British-Iranian Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to show her baby daughter Gabriella to her parents.

She is currently serving a fiveyear sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

In statement Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said she could “see some light today, more than before”. She continued that there have been two or three times before when she felt like she might be getting close to freedom, but was ultimately left disappointed.

“This time, again it feels close, but I am not planning it, not a date for myself,” she added.

Mr Ratcliffe said Mr Johnson also used his visit to Iran to meet with the family of his wife — spending 45 minutes with them on Saturday evening.

Mr Johnson promised them he would do his best to resolve the case, the Free Nazanin Campaign said.