An Iranian couple whose family all live in the UK have won their battle against deportation.
Mozaffar Saberi, 83, and Rezvan Habibimarand, 73, have been granted leave to remain in the UK by the Home Office.
The great-grandparents' case was previously raised in the House of Commons and more than 127,000 people had signed an online petition calling for the couple to be allowed to stay in the UK.
Mr Saberi and Mrs Habibimarand bought a flat in Edinburgh in the late 1970s and have four children, 11 grandchildren and a great-grandchild who are all British citizens.
The couple spent time in the UK on visitor visas over the years but after visiting in November 2012 they made an application to remain on human rights grounds which was refused by the Home Office.
A second application was also refused and they had been appealing against the decision, with the case due to be heard later this month.
The couple's family and legal team previously spoke of the pair's distress at the prospect of being separated from their family who all live in Edinburgh.
The couple also look after their severely autistic grandson who is non-verbal in order to help their daughter, an NHS nurse who is a single mother.
More than 127,800 people had signed a petition on change.org calling on the Home Office to allow the couple to stay in the UK and they have now been given leave to remain.
A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed: "Following a review of the case, during which supplementary evidence was provided and considered, Mr Saberi and Mrs Habibimarand have been granted 30 months' leave to remain."
Writing on Facebook, their son Navid Saberi said: "You did it folks, you did it, thank you does not sound/feel enough but thank you. My parents will not be deported, just received the confirmation.
"Thank you for all your efforts, likes, shares and signatures."
He continued: "I should thank John Vassiliou, our solicitor, and his team who stuck with us in the last six years and never gave up hope and kept us motivated.
"In addition, I would like to thank our MP Ian Murray who worked incredibly hard, raising the issue in the House of Commons and in the Council of Europe. He has been amazing.
"Many thanks also go to the Scottish Minister for Europe, Migration and International Development Ben Macpherson MSP and regional MSPs Alison Johnstone and Andy Wightman who all wrote letters on our behalf, and also to David Lammy MP and Diane Abbott MP for helping to raise the case's profile on social media."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel