Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British academic detained in Iran for more than two years, has paid tribute to the Australian diplomats who worked to secure her release, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described her freeing as “a miracle”.
The Melbourne University academic’s release brings to an end more than two years of diplomatic feuding between Australia and Iran which included Moore-Gilbert being transferred to a notorious remote women’s prison in the desert.
“Thank you also to all of you who have supported me and campaigned for my freedom, it has meant the world to me to have you behind me throughout what has been a long and traumatic ordeal,” she said in a statement released on Thursday morning.The Cambridge University-educated 33-year-old, who most recently worked as a lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne, was arrested in September 2018 while at an educational conference and was later convicted of espionage.
After 804 days in detention, Moore-Gilbert also thanked the “warm-hearted, generous and brave” Iranian people and “the great nation of Iran” alongside her gratitude to Australian diplomats. Her release was secured in exchange for the release of Iranian prisoners held in Thailand.
“It is with bittersweet feelings that I depart your country, despite the injustices which I have been subjected to,” the 33-year-old Australian-British academic said. “I came to Iran as a friend and with friendly intentions, and depart Iran with those sentiments not only still intact, but strengthened.”
Read the article by Rachael Dexter, Josh Dye, Anthony Galloway and Latika Bourke in The Sydney Morning Herald.