British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe eligible for early release from Iran prison

British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been told that she is eligible for early release after being held in an Iranian jail for more than 18 months.

The mother-of-one is serving a five-year sentence over allegations of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she has vehemently denied.

Her husband Richard has now confirmed that his wife is reportedly eligible for early release after she was informed of the news by her lawyer.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sister, Rebecca Jones, 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 Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s visit to Iran 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.

London resident Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was first arrested at the airport in Tehran after visiting her family with her daughter in 2016. Her husband has continued to campaign for her release ever since.

In November, Mr Johnson was condemned after incorrectly stating that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was ‘teaching journalists’ in Iran.

The comments risked increasing Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s time behind bars, as authorities used this as justification for new charges against her of ‘spreading propaganda’.

Pleading for his wife’s release in a recent letter to Iranian ambassador Hamid Baeidinejad, Mr Ratcliffe wrote: ‘Nazanin remains a mum on holiday with a toddler, an ordinary citizen, British and Iranian, held in prison for doing a charity job.

‘She is not a spy. She has never sold her country out. Not even the Revolutionary Court has claimed that. With all these new spy claims, the emperor has no clothes.’