Christian converts Maryam Jalili and Mitra Rahmati are among more than a dozen political prisoners to have been released on the eve of President Hassan Rouhani’s trip to the UN in New York.

The two Christians had only around one and a half months left of their two-and-a-half-year prison sentences for attending a house-church.

Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, serving a six-year sentence for her defence of political prisoners, was also among the at least 16 released.

The issue of repeated human rights violations has been a key topic of discussion in Iran’s negotiations with the West in recent years, so the timing of the news, ahead of Rouhani’s trip to New York, seems unlikely to be a coincidence.