London: The long-running case of British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who has been held in Iran for five years, took a turn on Sunday after authorities removed her ankle bracelet.
It came as her five-year sentence for spying, which the Britain-Iranian aid worker denies, expired, but was followed by a new hurdle in her battle for freedom: she will now face a second court case scheduled for next Sunday.
The 43-year-old’s ongoing detention in Iran has outraged Western countries and the United Nations. It is one of a string of so-called “hostage diplomacy” cases — whereby nations seize innocent and often dual-national citizens as leverage — that until November included Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
Australia negotiated the Melbourne woman’s freedom via a prisoner swap deal via Thailand, something the British have refused to do.
In March last year, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was moved from prison as the coronavirus pandemic swept the world and has been living under house arrest ever since.
Briton Richard Ratcliffe said his wife was planning on seeing her grandmother and was “pleased” with the removal of the tag.
But he said the fight to get her home was far from over.
Read the article by Latika Bourke in The Sydney Morning Herald.