UK-Iranian woman held since 2016 'on way home': MP
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in Iran since 2016, is "at
the airport in Tehran and on her way home", her local MP in London, Tulip
Siddiq, tweeted on Wednesday.
Hopes were raised about the dual nationality UK-Iranian's release after she had her British passport returned to her Tuesday amid reports that a UK negotiating team was in Iran.
There was no immediate confirmation from the UK government, while British media reported that a second dual national, retired engineer, Anoosheh Ashoori, was also returning.
The families of both believe they were being held as political prisoners until the UK settled a £400-million ($520-million, 475-million-euro) debt for defence equipment dating back to the time of the Shah of Iran.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told BBC radio on Wednesday she had made it "a priority to ensure that we are paying back the debt that we legitimately owe the Iranian authorities".
But the UK has consciously avoided saying the detention of the pair, and others held in Iran, was linked to the debt.
Truss said the issues were separate, blaming sanctions on Iran for delaying the repayment related to an order of tanks that was cancelled after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the news and data agency, was arrested in Tehran on a visit to family in 2016.
She was sentenced to five years in prison for plotting to overthrow the government. Last year she was given a further 12-month jail term for taking part in a rally outside the Iranian embassy in London in 2009.
Ashoori was arrested in 2017 and jailed for 10 years on charges of spying for Israel. Both have strenuously denied the charges.
