"She's fine," says the Spanish foreign minister. Ana Baneira, a Spanish woman detained in Iran since late last year, was released on Saturday, José Manuel Albares said Sunday. "She was released yesterday but we didn't want to announce it publicly until her plane took off from Iran," he told reporters. The head of Spanish diplomacy said that the young woman would join from Tehran her region of origin, Galicia (northwestern Spain), via Dubai and Geneva.

The family of the young woman immediately welcomed her release, hoping to see her Sunday night, "after weeks of waiting that lasted an eternity," she said in a statement. She stressed that it would be up to the young woman herself "to decide when and how" she would speak to the press, and asked the media to "respect the privacy" of the family reunion.

Arrested in November

Spanish diplomatic sources announced in November the arrest of a Spanish national, without giving further details, but the NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) claimed that it was the woman, aged 24. The circumstances of her arrest have never been officially confirmed, but she came as Iran has been rocked by protests since the death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September.



The Iranian authorities announced in late September the arrest of nine foreigners, mainly from Poland, Italy and France, in connection with the protests. Another Spaniard, Santiago Sanchez Cogedor, has been detained in Iran since October. "Today is a happy day but happiness will be total when Santiago is also liberated," insisted the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs. "I will not stop insisting (to Tehran) and taking steps until Santiago is released. This is an arrest that has no basis," he added.

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