A British-Iranian businessman who was falsely accused of being a spy for Mossad has been released from imprisonment in Iran and is reportedly on the way back home to the UK.

Dual UK-Iranian national, Anoosheh Ashoori, was arrested in 2017 when visiting his mother in Iran, and accused by authorities in Tehran of "spying for Israel's Mossad" and "acquiring illegitimate wealth".

He was sentenced after a trial in 2019 to 12 years imprisonment. At the time, the Foreign Office said it was supporting his family, adding: “our Embassy in Tehran continues to request consular access.

“The treatment of all dual nationals detained in Iran is a priority and we raise their cases at the most senior levels.

“We urge Iran to let them be reunited with their families.”

Both Ashoori and Zaghari-Ratcliffe's families have been campaigning for their release for years, with Nazanin's husband Richard even resorting to a hunger strike in Westminster to draw attention to her case.

The imprisonment of both British nationals has been linked to an unpaid debt of £400m that the British government owed Iran for the non-delivery of tanks in the 1970s.