Release hope for British mum held in Iran prison

British mother Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe could be home soon after iran offered a glimmer of hope for her freedom yesterday.

tehran altered the status of her case from ‘closed’ to ‘eligible for early release’.

the move comes after a recent visit by Foreign secretary Boris Johnson in which he raised her ordeal with iranian officials.

the 38-year-old was arrested in iran while on holiday with her daughter Gabriella, now three, in April 2016.

she is currently serving a fiveyear sentence on trumped-up espionage charges. her husband richard ratcliffe, who has not seen his wife or child since the arrest, told BBC radio 5: ‘it might be sort of days to weeks, rather than tomorrow morning.

‘But definitely it feels like the end is much closer in sight.’

the accountant from hampstead, north London, said his wife’s lawyers had informed her of the change, adding: ‘she’s now been marked as eligible for early release.

‘Before, she’d been marked as a closed case, which meant that all her trials were finished.’

he said he was reluctant to get ‘too hopeful’ in case something else happened, but that part of him was still hoping she would be back for Christmas.

the father-of-one added that he attributed the ‘change of tide’ in his wife’s case to the visit by Mr Johnson to the country earlier this month.

Mr Johnson faced calls to resign after he wrongly said the mother was in iran training journalists – something she had always denied.

he vowed to ‘leave no stone unturned’ in his efforts to free her after his mistake sparked fears she faced further charges or a longer sentence.

however, a second trial was postponed after Mr Johnson’s visit. Mr ratcliffe said: ‘We’ve definitely had a change of the tide...she’s been allowed extra visits, and now suddenly the database is shifting.

‘she’s still in prison but that all feels very positive.’