Family of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe fear she will be held by Iran after sentence ends

The charity worker’s sentence is due to expire on March 7 but no preparations have been made for her return to the UK

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is under house arrest at her parents’ home in Tehran. Reuters

The husband of jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says he fears she will be held by Iran beyond her scheduled release date.

Her five-year jail term is due to end on March 7 but no preparations have been made to allow her to return to the UK, her husband Richard Ratcliffe said.

"It's not impossible that a rabbit is pulled out of a hat, but at this point I think no news is bad news," he told MailOnline. "If they were due to release her, I think we would've heard more before. It doesn't give me great hope."

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, was held at Tehran’s international airport as she prepared to return to London after visiting her parents with her daughter in April 2016.

She was accused of plotting to topple the Iranian government but her trial was held in secret and the case against her has never been made public.

Her family says her continued detention is linked to a dispute over a multi-million-dollar arms deal debt that dates to the 1970s and that she is being held as part of a broader diplomatic battle with Britain.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released with thousands of other detainees in March last year over fears of the effects of Covid-19 in Iran’s jails. But she has to stay at her parents’ home and wear an electronic tag to ensure she remains in the country.

“For years, the worst-case scenario was that she would serve the full sentence,” Mr Ratcliffe said. “Now we’re staring at something much worse.”

The family of Baquer Namazi, 84, a former Unicef official, said this week that his 10-year sentence, purportedly for espionage, was commuted on health grounds a year ago, but on the orders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps he has not been allowed to leave the country.