Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family can finally breathe a sigh of relief after it was confirmed she was safely in the air and will return to the UK today.
The mother-of-one is on board a flight out of Iran along with British-Iranian businessman Anoosheh Ashoori.
The UK government confirmed Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention had ended and she would be reunited with her family “later today”.
Meanwhile, her husband’s lawyer Penny Madden said their family was feeling the “most enormous relief”.
Madden said the couple’s daughter Gabriella knew her mother was coming home today and was “beyond excited”.
Her MP Tulip Siddiq shared a photograph of Zaghari-Ratcliffe smiling on the plane and commented: “It’s been six long years - and I can’t believe I can finally share this photo.
“Nazanin is now in the air flying away from six years of hell in Iran.
“My heart goes out to Gabriella and Richard, as her long journey back home to them gets closer by the minute.”
“They will be reunited with their families later today”
- Liz Truss
Foreign secretary Liz Truss said: “I can confirm Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori will return to the UK today, and Morad Tahbaz has been released from prison on furlough.
“They will be reunited with their families later today. We will continue to work to secure Morad’s departure from Iran.”
Boris Johnson added: “I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the UK.
“The UK has worked intensively to secure their release and I am delighted they will be reunited with their families and loved ones.”
The pair are set to fly to Muscat in Oman before travelling on to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on a Titan Airways Boeing jet chartered privately by the UK Government, according to The Times.
It indicates she is now safe and out of the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who first arrested her nearly six years ago.
Johnson, Truss and Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family were cautious about saying too much this morning until she was safely on the plane.
Earlier her sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe told the BBC: “It feels like we are on the home run now but until she leaves that airport we can’t quite believe it.”
A British negotiating team had been working in Tehran to secure the release of a number of dual nationals.
Just a few hours before the announcement Boris Johnson described the talks as “moving forward” and “going right up to the wire”.
And only yesterday it was revealed that Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, had her British passport returned to her.
It comes after Iranian state media said the UK had “settled a long-overdue debt” of around £400 million to Tehran.
The debt relates to a cancelled order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks dating back to the 1970s.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention has long been linked to the debt, although Britain has always denied the two issues are linked.