Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert touches down in Canberra after being released from prison

Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert touches down in Canberra after being released from an Iranian prison – as it’s revealed her Israeli boyfriend was the REAL reason she was locked up for two years

  • Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert was released from an jail this week
  • She was serving a ten-year sentence in Iran on trumped-up espionage charges     
  • Dr Moore-Gilbert touched down in Canberra, Australia, on Friday afternoon 

British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has touched down in Canberra after spending more than two years in an Iranian prison.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was met by public health officials and members of the Australian Defence Force after disembarking from a plane at Canberra Airport on Friday afternoon.

She was freed earlier this week in a reported prisoner swap deal after 804 days behind bars. 

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has said that Dr Moore-Gilbert will have to quarantine before re-entering the Australian community and reuniting with family and friends. 

Pictures showed Dr Moore-Gilbert walking across the tarmac before being escorted into a van on Friday afternoon.   

Dr Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer on Middle Eastern studies at Melbourne University, was arrested at Tehran’s airport in 2018 after attending an academic conference.

Pictured: Health officials and the Australian Defence Force wait for Dr Moore-Gilbert to disembark jet

She was sent to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on espionage charges. She has always strenuously denied the charges. 

Multiple diplomatic and senior government sources confirmed that Dr Moore-Gilbert was stopped at the airport in 2018 after authorities discovered she was in a relationship with an Israeli citizen, according to The Age. 

The University of Melbourne lecturer was freed after more than six months of high level negotiations between Iran, Australia and Thailand, led by the chief of Australia’s intelligence community Nick Warner. 

Australian authorities including Ms Payne, who met her Iranian counterpart and discussed Dr Moore-Gilbert’s case on four occasions, pursued a strategy of ‘quiet diplomacy’. 

The country’s involved agreed not to publicly discuss the deal because of the sensitive diplomatic nature, however, a news website affiliated to state television in Iran first reported the prisoner swap. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday that he had spoken to Dr Moore-Gilbert and she was in good spirits. 

Dr Moore-Gilbert flew into Canberra from the Middle East on Friday afternoon

Dr Moore-Gilbert flew into Canberra from the Middle East on Friday afternoon

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) was released in a reported prisoner swap deal early after spending two years in prison in Iran

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured) was released in a reported prisoner swap deal early after spending two years in prison in Iran

Dr Moore-Gilbert is seen following her release from an Iranian prison

Dr Moore-Gilbert is seen following her release from an Iranian prison 

The Australian government has refused to confirm that the academic’s freedom was extracted through a prisoner swap.

‘The Australian government doesn’t acknowledge or confirm any such arrangement regarding any release of any other persons in any other places,’ Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

‘If other people are being released in other places, they are the decisions of the sovereign governments in those places.’

Iranian media claimed three of the country’s citizens were released on Thursday in exchange for Dr Gilbert-Moore.

Thailand said it had transferred three Iranians involved in a botched 2012 bomb plot back to Tehran, but declined to call it a swap.  

Pictured: Dr Moore-Gilbert is escorted onto a van after getting off a plane in Canberra

Pictured: Dr Moore-Gilbert is escorted onto a van after getting off a plane in Canberra

Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured above) spent more than two years behind bars in Iran after she was imprisoned on espionage offences

Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured above) spent more than two years behind bars in Iran after she was imprisoned on espionage offences 

Dr Moore-Gilbert’s family said they were ‘relieved and ecstatic’ while the lecturer herself expressed her ‘love and admiration for the great nation of Iran and its warm-­hearted, generous and brave ­people’. 

Despite her harrowing ordeal, Dr Moore-Gilbert refuses to blame Iran’s people for her wrongful imprisonment.

‘It is with bittersweet feelings that I depart your country, despite the injustices which I have been subjected to,’ she said.

‘I came to Iran as a friend and with friendly intentions, and ­depart Iran with those sentiments not only still intact, but strengthened.’  

Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) described her release as 'bittersweet' despite the injustices she was subjected to in Iran

Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) described her release as ‘bittersweet’ despite the injustices she was subjected to in Iran

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk