Swap frees academic, 3 Iranians

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran on Wednesday freed a British-Australian academic who had been detained in the country for more than two years, in exchange for three Iranians held abroad, state TV announced.

The television report was scant on detail, saying only that the three Iranians freed in the swap had been imprisoned for trying to bypass sanctions on Iran.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, 33, was a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies when she was picked up at the Tehran airport while trying to leave the country after attending an academic conference in 2018. She was sent to Tehran’s Evin prison, convicted of spying and sentenced to 10 years behind bars. Moore-Gilbert had vehemently denied the charges and maintained her innocence.

She was one of several Westerners held in Iran on widely criticized espionage charges that activists and U.N. investigators believe represent a systematic effort to leverage their imprisonments for money or influence in negotiations with the West, which Tehran denies.

It was not immediately clear when Moore-Gilbert would arrive back in Australia. State TV aired footage showing her clad in a gray hijab sitting at what appeared to be a greeting room at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran.

The state TV report did not elaborate on the Iranians it described as “economic activists” freed in exchange for Moore-Gilbert. They wore outfits apparently designed to conceal their identities onscreen.