Academic freed by Iran returns to Australia

SYDNEY: An Australian-British academic released after two years imprisoned in Iran on spying charges returned to Australia on Friday, local media reported.

Middle East scholar Kylie Moore-Gilbert touched down at an airport in the capital Canberra, public broadcaster ABC said. Her arrival took place away from public spotlight, with the Australian government saying the 33-year-old had requested privacy as she comes to terms with her ordeal.

She was released on Wednesday after what she called two "traumatic" years behind bars, in a swap for three Iranians linked to a botched Bangkok bomb plot. A government jet flew into Canberra on Friday evening from an airbase on the country’s west coast, where it is believed Moore-Gilbert was transferred from her initial flight out of the Middle East.

She was arrested by Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2018, after attending an academic conference in the holy city of Qom in central Iran. She was later charged with espionage and sentenced to ten years in jail, allegations she has denied.

"I came to Iran as a friend and with friendly intentions," she said in a statement on her release, praising the "warm-hearted, generous and brave" Iranian people, despite what she called a "long and traumatic ordeal".

Her release was secured as part of a prisoner swap for three men: Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, Mohammad Khazaei and wheelchair-bound Saeid Moradi, who blew off his own legs with homemade explosives. All three were linked to a failed plot to assassinate Israeli diplomats in Thailand in 2012.