Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being offered temporary release from Evin prison in Tehran due to the risk of the coronavirus outbreak reaching Iran’s jails.
The news was confirmed by the Iranian ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad, and by Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency MP in north-west London, Tulip Siddiq.
There is no immediate news on whether Anoosh Ashoori, another British-Iranian dual national detained in Evin, will also be released.
It appears that the Iranian judicial authorities have recognised that the risk of the disease spreading through Iran’s crowded and insanitary prisons is so great that some action has to be taken. The judiciary has already released hundreds of non-political prisoners temporarily.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said at the weekend that she was suffering symptoms of the disease, but Iran’s judicial spokesman said at a press conference in Tehran that she was fine and she would be speaking to her husband later on Tuesday.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has taken furlough once before, believing it would lead to her permanent release, but then rejected a further offer, saying she found the experience of returning to jail too traumatic. She has been charged with spying and is serving a five-year sentence that could be extended.
The UK, France and Germany have sent up to €5m of health equipment via the UN to help Iran deal with the coronavirus outbreak, and that help, alongside political pressure from the UK, may have led Tehran to reconsider its previous position that no political or security prisoner should be released.
A previous judicial decree has allowed some political prisoners to go on furlough until 3 April, but this applied only to women over the aged of 60 and men over 70. The sentence also had to be shorter than five years.
Baeidinajed tweeted: “Mr Esmaili, the spokesman of Iran’s judiciary, announced that Mrs Nazanin Zaghari is in good health condition and has not been affected with coronavirus. He added that one of the prisoners with security charge will be granted a furlough today or tomorrow to join family.”
Siddiq said: “If this furlough happens, the British government has an obligation to make it permanent and not let her be used as a bargaining chip in the weeks to come. I remain concerned that Nazanin has told her family that she has still not been tested for coronavirus.”
Ratcliffe said on Monday evening that the Iranian foreign ministry had falsely told the Foreign Office she had been tested for the disease and confirmed to be negative. He said his wife denied she had been tested.
Ratcliffe said his wife had been told nothing of her potential release as of Monday.
“Nazanin would be very, very pleased to come out of prison,” he said. “However, I think it is a game by the Iranian authorities to avoid responsibility for testing and treating Nazanin for coronavirus.
“And our experience of furlough last time was very negative. It just made us a different kind of bargaining chip and the family were exposed to all sorts of threats from the Revolutionary Guard. So the UK government needs to make sure it can protect her and her family.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be able to stay with her mother in Tehran. Her daughter, Gabriella, has come to London to start school and is with Ratcliffe.
The family of Ashoori, a 66-year-old British-Iranian dual national charged with spying for Israel, have been pressing for his release.
It has been reported but cannot be confirmed from London that Hengameh Shahidi, a women’s right activist in the same ward as Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has contracted coronavirus.
