British-Australian academic freed in Iranian exchange

Academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert had been held on espionage charges which her family and colleagues said were unfounded. Photo / Iranian State Television via AP

Iran has freed Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a British-Australian academic who has been detained in Iran for more than two years, in exchange for three Iranians held abroad, it has reported.

The three Iranians released in the swap had been detained for trying to bypass sanctions.

Moore-Gilbert was a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies when she was sent to Tehran's Evin Prison in September 2018 and sentenced to 10 years. She is one of several Westerners held in Iran on internationally criticised espionage charges that their families and rights groups say are unfounded.

It was not immediately clear when Moore-Gilbert would arrive back in Australia. Iranian state TV aired video showing her with a gray hijab sitting at what appeared to be a greeting room at one of Tehran's airports. She wore a blue face mask under her chin. The footage showed three men with Iranian flags over their shoulders — those freed in exchange for her being released. State TV earlier described them as "economic activists", without elaborating.

In this frame grab from Iranian television, British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, can be seen in a van. Photo / Iranian State Television via AP

International pressure on Iran to secure her release has escalated in recent months following reports that her health was deteriorating during long stretches of solitary confinement and that she had been transferred to the notorious Qarchak Prison, east of Tehran.

Moore-Gilbert has gone on hunger strikes and pleaded for the Australian government to do more to free her. Those pleas included writing to the prime minister that she had been subjected to "grievous violations" of her rights, including psychological torture and solitary confinement.

Her detention has further strained relations between Iran and the West, which reached a fever pitch earlier this year following the American killing of a top Iranian general in Baghdad and retaliatory Iranian strikes on a US military base.

- AP