UK woman released in Iran but not free yet

A British-Iranian woman held in an Iran prison for five years on widely refuted spying charges has finished her sentence, but she faces a new trial and cannot yet return home to London.

The twists and turns of aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's years-long case have sparked international outrage and strained already fraught diplomatic ties between the UK and Iran.

Although Zaghari-Ratcliffe completed her full sentence and was allowed to remove her ankle monitor and leave house arrest on Sunday, her future remains uncertain.

"It feels to me like they have made one blockage just as they have removed another, and we very clearly remain in the middle of this government game of chess," her husband Richard Ratcliffe said.

She has been summoned to court on March 14 over murky new charges, including "spreading propaganda", which were first announced last year.

Her trial was then indefinitely postponed, stirring hopes for her return home when her sentence ended.

Authorities released her on furlough last March because of the surging coronavirus pandemic, and she has remained in detention at her parent's home in Tehran since.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran's government, a charge that she, her supporters and rights groups vigorously deny.

She was taken into custody at the airport with her toddler daughter after visiting family on holiday in the capital of Tehran in 2016.

At the time, she was working for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The United Nations has described her arrest as arbitrary, and reported that her treatment, including stints in solitary confinement and deprivation of medical care, could amount to torture.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the removal of Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ankle tag but called for her to be allowed to return home.

"Her continued confinement remains totally unacceptable," he said on Twitter.

"She must be released permanently so she can return to her family in the UK, and we continue to do all we can to achieve this."

The latest setback in Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case comes as Britain and Iran negotiate a spat over a debt of some 400 million pounds owed to Iran by London.

Ratcliffe, who for years has campaigned vocally for his wife's release, has said that Iran was holding Zaghari-Ratcliffe as "collateral" in the dispute.

Authorities in London and Tehran deny that Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case is linked to the repayment deal.

But a prisoner exchange that freed four American citizens in 2016 saw the US pay a similar sum to Iran the same day of their release.

As for Zaghari-Ratcliffe, exactly what will happen next weekend in court remains uncertain. Her family and supporters fear the worst.

With her ankle tag off for the first time, Zaghari-Ratcliffe spent the afternoon visiting her grandmother and the family of one of the other British-Iranians held in prison, her husband said.

"It's a mixed day for us," Ratcliffe added. "She is having a nice afternoon, has turned her phone off and is not thinking about the rest of it."