The new court case of imprisoned Briton Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been postponed in the wake of the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Iran, her husband has said.
Boris Johnson has been on a two-day visit to Iran where he has held separate talks with president Hassan Rouhani and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Richard Ratcliffe said: “Nazanin’s court case was not held today in the wake of the Foreign Secretary’s visit. This is undoubtedly a good sign.
“The Foreign Secretary also met with Nazanin’s family last night to reassure them that Nazanin was a close concern and that her case had been discussed in every meeting he held.
“I am expecting a fuller debrief from the Foreign Office on the Foreign Secretary’s efforts on Nazanin’s case once he returns from the region, either Monday or Tuesday.”
Mr Johnson has been seeking the release of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe during a two-day visit to Iran.
On Sunday, after nearly an hour of talks with the Iranian president, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said they “both spoke forthrightly” and “agreed on the need to make progress in all areas”.
In a statement, Mr Ratcliffe said he and his family have been “watching closely with hope”.
“I said I thought that if the Foreign Secretary had a good Saturday, we might have a good Sunday, with a court case postponed,” he said.
Boris Johnson in discussions with the Iranians (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)
“And so it has come to pass. Today is one of the good days in the past 20 months.”
“This weekend we had our first ripple of freedom, with the postponement of Nazanin’s new court case.
“Of course who knows what lies ahead, the past 20 months have had plenty of false turns – but my hope is that the ripple in the days ahead might become a full change of tide.
“My hope today is as Nazanin once wrote: Freedom feels one day closer, that Christmas dream remains.”
Mr Ratcliffe said just a month ago he was “cursing” Mr Johnson, but said that “to date he has been as good as his word”.
“He did get to Iran, he did get there before her court case, and that did make a difference,” he added.
“Of course, one swallow doesn’t make a Christmas – Nazanin is not yet on a plane. But it is good to have at least a swallow in the sky.”
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