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An Australian-British investigator was released after two years in prison in Tehran in exchange for three Iranian citizens. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was sentenced to ten years in prison for alleged espionage on behalf of Israel in Tehran, was released on Wednesday night. The 33-year-old Islamic scholar had always denied the allegations. She called her detention time a “long and traumatic ordeal” in a statement distributed by the Australian government on Thursday.
According to the Iranian broadcaster Iribnews, three Iranian citizens who were arrested abroad were released “in exchange for a spy with dual citizenship.” The contribution featured photographs of three men who were greeted when they returned home. According to reports from the Sydney Morning Herald and the AP news agency, three men arrested in Thailand who attempted to carry out an attack on Israeli diplomats in 2012.
Moore-Gilbert smuggled letters from jail
Iranian authorities had confirmed the arrest of Islamic scholar Moore-Gilbert from the University of Melbourne in September 2019. According to her family, she was arrested in 2018.
Moore-Gilbert had letters smuggled out of the prison during his incarceration, some of which had been published in the British media. The first ten months of his incarceration in an isolated wing of Evin prison in Tehran “seriously damaged” his mental health, he wrote. However, he turned down an offer from Tehran to work as a spy for Iran.
It was “bittersweet” to leave Iran, despite the “injustices” that had befallen it. She went to the country as “a friend and with friendly intentions.” He thanked the Australian government and especially the diplomats at the Australian embassy in Tehran, who “have worked tirelessly for my release for two years and three months.”
British Chancellor Raab calls for the release of all British
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison noted Thursday that his country had not released any prisoners. Like Morrison, the US and UK welcomed the launch. British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab asked Tehran on the short message service Twitter to release all British citizens with dual citizenship.
The US State Department said Moore-Gilbert should never have been arrested. Tehran is operating “hostage diplomacy”.
Another prominent case is that of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The Iranian-British employee of a British journalists’ foundation was temporarily allowed out of prison due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In early August, the German-Iranian opposition leader Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped by the mullah regime and charged with terrorism. (Read an interview with your daughter here).
