Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman held by Iran for six years, has had her passport returned and a British negotiating team is in Tehran.
She has been detained in Iran since her arrest in 2016 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, allegations she has always denied.
Tulip Siddiq MP, who has been campaigning for her constituent’s release, tweeted: “I am very pleased to say that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back. She is still at her family home in Tehran.
"I also understand that there is a British negotiating team in Tehran right now. I will keep posting updates as I get them.”
According to her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, her lawyer Hojjat Kermani, when asked whether Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be released, said: “I am hopeful that we will have good news soon.”
She was arrested in Iran as she prepared to fly back to the UK, having taken her daughter Gabriella – then not even two years old – to see relatives.
She was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Tehran’s Evin Prison and one under house arrest.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, spent 21 days on hunger strike last year in London to draw attention to his wife’s case.
A £400 million debt relating to a cancelled order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks dating back to the 1970s had been linked to the continued detention of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK-Iranian dual nationals held in the country.
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