Will Nazanin Be Home for Christmas?

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is now eligible for early release, and her family and supporters are hopeful that she may be home for Christmas. 

According to the family lawyer for the dual national, who has been held in an Iranian prison since April 2016, Iranian authorities have changed the status of her case, marking it as “eligible for release” instead of “closed.” The status on the Iranian judiciary’s website has been updated to reflect this. 

In a press statement, Tulip Siddiq, the member of parliament for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s London constituency, said the news was “a glimmer of light at the end of a dark tunnel” that has “given Nazanin a real boost of positive energy.” 

The news follows the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s visit to Tehran earlier in December. During the visit, Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, told IranWire he was more hopeful than last Christmas about her impending release. He said that if Nazanin's scheduled appearance in court on December 10 was canceled, it would mean good news for her case. On December 11, the court announced that a second trial would not take place.

In November, Zaghari-Ratcliffe marked 600 days in prison, representing a third of her prison sentence and thereby making her eligible for early release under Iranian law. 

Tulip Siddiq MP said it would be “the perfect Christmas gift” for Zaghari-Ratcliffe to be “back with her family where she belongs.”

Iranian state media had recently launched a sustained propaganda against Zaghari-Ratclffe, accusing her of training journalists after an erroneous statement by the foreign secretary to a UK parliamentary group. Shortly after Johnson's visit to Iran — during which he met with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani — the Friday Prayer Leader for Mashhad criticized the trip, and President Rouhani's administration for hosting it.