Jailed Brit Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has arrived back in the UK just after 1am today after finally being freed from prison in Iran.
The British-Iranian mum-of-one, who had her passport returned on Wednesday, has been reunited with her husband and daughter after her plane landed at the Brize Norton military airbase in Oxfordshire.
She was pictured yesterday afternoon been on a plane returning to the UK.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, along with dual national Anoosheh Ashoori who has also been freed, were initially taken to the Gulf state of Oman, which has been closely involved in behind-the-scenes negotiations to secure their releases.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said he was “deeply grateful” for her release and that he and their daughter Gabriella were “looking forward to a new life”.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in the Middle East for nearly six years after being arrested while taking her daughter to see her family.
She was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denied.
Labour's Tulip Siddiq, the family's local MP, confirmed the news in tweet: "Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran and on her way home. I came into politics to make a difference, and right now I’m feeling like I have."
Siddiq earlier said she had been told from husband Richard Ratcliffe that Nazanin is at the airport in Tehran but “still under the authority of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard”.
He told her “they can smell freedom, they just haven’t grasped it yet.”
The family's lawyer Hojjat Kermani said she had been freed alongside Anousheh Ashoori, following talks between London and Tehran over a £400million debt between the UK and Iranian governments.
"Both of them are on their way to the airport in Tehran to leave Iran," Kermani said.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "I can confirm Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori will return to the UK today, and Morad Tahbaz has been released from prison on furlough. They will be reunited with their families later today."
A statement from Truss continued: "Their release is the result of years of hard work and dedication by our brilliant diplomats, and intensive efforts over the past six months.
"I pay tribute to my predecessors and the Prime Minister, who have all worked hard to resolve this issue.
"We have the deepest admiration for the resolve, courage and determination Nazanin, Anoosheh and Morad, and their families, have shown. They have faced hardship that no family should ever experience and this is a moment of great relief.
"In parallel, we have also settled the IMS debt, as we said we would."
Iranian state media said the UK had "settled a long-overdue debt" of around £400 million to Tehran.
On Wednesday morning, BBC news reader Joanna Gosling become emotional as she broke the news of Zaghari-Ratcliffe release live on air.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe told BBC News it was an "emotional day".
"It feels like we're on the home run now but until she leaves that airport we can't believe it," she said, adding that she had spoken to Mr Ratcliffe.
She said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been picked up and taken to the airport with her parents, who were not allowed in a holding room with her because she was "still under Iranian control in the airport".
It comes after her husband Richard Ratcliffe said that the government "only deals with problems when they become crises", and has been heavily critical of its response to the family's plight.
He had called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to acknowledge that his wife was being held "hostage" in Iran, and has pitched a tent in central London where he plans to keep a vigil outside the government building.
Last year, Richard spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) without food.
He began his demonstration on October 24 after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was "caught in a dispute between two states".
After 21 days on on King Charles Street, where Mr Ratcliffe had been staging his hunger strike, he said his job is to "keep going", adding: "We probably hoped we'd get a breakthrough doing this. We haven't yet.
"I didn't want to go out in an ambulance. I want to walk out with my head held high."
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taking the couple's daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail, spending four years in Evin Prison and one under house arrest.
The United Nations had called for Nazanin's release, and 1.5 million people signed an online petition urging British and Iranian leaders to secure her safe return to the UK.
In 2020, it was reported Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on the brink of being freed from jail in Iran almost two-and-a-half years prior, until a planned deal collapsed.
The mother-of-one's husband Richard Ratcliffe said the family had even been given a date of December 28, 2017 for his wife's return to the UK.
It is unclear why the deal fell through.
The revelations were made during a BBC Panorama investigation into the detention of British and other western citizens in Iran.
It has long been claimed Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in order to force the UK into settling a multi-million pound dispute with Iran.
The nightmare ordeal left her feeling suicidal while detained, her husband previously said.
He said: “The uncertainty is torturous, we’re talking open-ended detention. It leaves her fearing she’ll never get out.
“The fear is not being taken back to normal prison, the fear is being taken back to torture.”
Nazanin told independent investigators she was threatened with execution and the torture of her family and also said she was chained and blindfolded in prison – suffering sensory and sleep deprivation.
She also described being interrogated for nine hours at a time in solitary confinement and bombarded with bright lights and blaring TVs.
Richard says Nazanin, who spent a week in a psychiatric hospital chained to the bed in 2018, was even left suicidal.
She was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.
After news of her release, Sacha Deshmukh, from Amnesty International UK's chief executive, said: "This is fantastic news, but it hasn't come a moment too soon.
"Nazanin and Anoosheh should never have been detained in the first place - they were both jailed on trumped-up national security charges, a familiar tactic in Iran.
"Nazanin and Anoosheh have unquestionably been used as political pawns by the Iranian authorities - and the Iranian authorities have acted with calculated cruelty, seeking to wring the maximum diplomatic value out of their captivity.
"The Government needs to follow up on Nazanin and Anoosheh's release by immediately renewing its calls for the release of the UK nationals Mehran Raoof and Morad Tahbaz, both of whom are still going through an ordeal all too similar to Nazanin and Anoosheh's.
"It's been clear for years that the Iranian authorities are targeting foreign nationals with spurious national security-related charges to exert diplomatic pressure, and it's more important than ever that Britain works multilaterally to combat this insidious practice."
During PMQs, there were furious clashes as Labour demanded other British dual nationals detained in Iran are brought home - and suggested the prime minister had made things worse.
The PM was previously slammed for incorrectly claiming Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was teaching journalism in Iran.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “I know the minister would agree this devastating situation must never be repeated and other British nationals still trapped in Iran need to be brought home.
“So will the minister commit to a review of these cases to understand what more could have been done by the British government to secure releases - and whether the lazy comments of the Prime Minister worsened the situation?"
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, said: “I am delighted to hear that Nazanin is finally free and on her way home to be reunited with her family in the UK – after almost six years of wrongful imprisonment.
Nazanin and her loved ones have shown great courage, strength and steadfastness during what has been an unimaginably difficult time, and I want to pay tribute to all those who have campaigned tirelessly for her release. London looks forward to welcoming her home.”
