Hope ‘tide has turned’ over mum in Iran jail

THE family of a British woman jailed in Iran have said they are feeling “more positive” her ordeal may soon end after her case status was changed to eligible for early release.

The latest twist in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who holds dual UK-Iranian nationality, comes after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s visit to the country earlier this month.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sister-in-law, Rebecca Jones, a GP living in Cardiff and working in Cwmbran, said: “She’s spoken to her lawyer, she’s seen her lawyer yesterday, and her lawyer has now discovered that on a judiciary database, her case is marked eligible for early release – that’s a change, we thought it was always a closed case.

“It doesn’t mean to say she is going to get early release, but it’s definitely a positive step that she has been marked eligible for early release.

“The lawyer is much more positive and Nazanin is much more positive.”

Richard Ratcliffe said he was “cautious” about the news but hoped his wife, who was arrested in 2016 during a holiday visit to show their daughter Gabriella to her parents, would be home soon.

He told Sky News: “It is definitely a positive step. I’m probably a bit cautious to see just how positive.

“There has not been any confirmation to her from the prosecutor so, what she got told, there is still some paperwork to finalise, so hopefully by Christmas, but Christmas is not very far away at all.

“But it’s definitely good news and fingers crossed now.”

He said since Mr Johnson’s visit there had been “incremental improvement” in her case, including allowing her more phone calls.

“I think it feels like the tide has turned, certainly,” he added.

Mr Ratcliffe, asked whether his wife had been used as political leverage in a reported £400m debt settlement, told the broadcaster: “There’s definitely lots of things in the relationship that are tense.

“There are clearly pots of money sitting under sanctions, there are issues about bank accounts not being opened, there are issues about banking and investments.

“I’m sure when the Foreign Secretary was there he talking through all of those and you know, it felt given we’ve got such a political case, and I’ve been campaigning to make us a high-profile case, the Foreign Office was always saying ‘listen, it’s going to need some political solution now.’”

Just days ago, Mr Ratcliffe wrote to the Iranian ambassador in London to urge him to make clear to all state bodies in Iran that his wife was not involved in espionage.

It came after the hardline Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda described Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe – who has been held for 20 months – as a “dirty spy who sold her country” during Friday prayers at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 38, is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.