Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: timeline of key events during her detention in Iran

The family of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe are celebrating as the former detainee makes her way about to the UK for the first time in six years.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran in 2016, with husband Richard Ratcliffe campaigning continuously for her release.

Much to their joy, she was finally released on 16 March 2022.

Upon news of her released, Mr Ratcliffe said: “Thank you. We wouldn’t have got here, this wouldn’t have happened today, without all the care and support of people up and down the country.

“Homecoming is a journey, not an arrival.

“I don’t think it will just be today, there will be a whole process, and hopefully we’ll look back in years to come and just be a normal family and this will be a chapter in our lives, but there are many more chapters to come.”

But what happened in the six years she was detained?

Here’s everything you need to know.

3 April, 2016

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe detained by Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Imam Khomeini Airport. Her charge was not released publicly.

9 August, 2016

Former Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about Ms Naghari-Ratcliffe’s detention.

9 September, 2016

Ms Naghari-Ratcliffe is jailed in Iran for five years.

13 November, 2016

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe begins a five day hunger strike in protest of her detainment. The hunger strike is called off after her family voice concerns for her health.

24 April, 2017

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe loses the final stage of her appeal process, with Theresa May once again contacting President Rouhani.

1 November, 2017

Boris Johnson, foreign secretary at the time, set’s Ms Naghari-Ratcliffe’s case back after stating that she “was simply teaching people journalism as I understand it”. However, Ms Naghari-Ratcliffe only ever held an administrative role at BBC World News.

The Foreign Office rebuked claims that Mr Johnson’s words put Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe at risk of further legal action, however it admitted that the foreign secretary “could have been clearer.”

23 August, 2018

She is temporarily released from prison and returns three days after being reunited with her family.

14 January, 2019

She begins a hunger strike in protest over her treatment in jail. The strike lasts three days.

15 June 2019

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe begins another hunger strike, this time lasting 15 days. She is joined, in a show of solidarity, by her husband, who strikes outside the Iranian Embassy in London.

25 September, 2019

Boris Johnson, now Prime Minister, appeals for Ms Naghari-Ratcliffe’s release during a meeting with President Rouhani at the UN.

17 March, 2020

She is temporarily released from prison for a second time due to Covid concerns, raising hope for clemency. She remains out of prison until a decision is made on her clemency and is able to speak to her family via video calls for around four to five hours per day.

26 April, 2021

Ms Naghari-Ratcliffe is sentenced to a one-year jail term for an unspecified charge and is banned from leaving Iran for one year.

It is believed that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces the charge of spreading “propaganda against the system” for participating in a protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009.

15 March, 2022

Ms Naghari-Ratcliffe’s passport is returned.

16 March, 2022

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, another dual-citizenship detainee, are released from detention and begin to travel back to the UK.

The news was met with overwhelming positive reaction.

Among those to comment was Prime Minister Boris Johnson who, when asked about his comments from November 2017, said: “We must always realise that, sadly, the regime in Tehran is capable of holding people in this way.

“I think that people do need to recognise that. I am glad that after a great deal of UK diplomacy we have been able to get her out, get her back to her family.

“I am absolutely thrilled for Nazanin, for Richard and for [Nazanin’s daughter] Gabriella .”

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