SYDNEY, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Australia on Thursday welcomed the release of British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was detained in Iran in September 2018 and had been serving a 10-year sentence for espionage.
“I am extremely pleased and relieved to advise that Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been released from detention in Iran and will soon be reunited with her family,” Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.
“The Australian Government has consistently rejected the grounds on which the Iranian government arrested, detained and convicted Dr Moore-Gilbert. We continue to do so.”
Iran has exchanged Moore-Gilbert, a specialist in Middle East politics at the University of Melbourne, with three Iranians who had been detained abroad, Iran‘s state broadcaster IRIB reported on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Renju Jose; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
