Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to confirm if an Australian academic was released from Iran as part of a prisoner swap for terrorists.
Kylie Gilbert-Moore is finally free after 804 days behind bars and will soon be reunited with her family in Australia.
While Mr Morrison said no prisoner was released from Australia, he was tight-lipped about detainees in other parts of the world.
“The Australian government doesn’t acknowledge or confirm any such arrangement regarding any release of any other persons in any other places,” he 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 claims three of the country’s citizens were released on Thursday in exchange for Dr Gilbert-Moore.
Other reports suggest the men had been behind bars in Thailand since 2012 on charges of having planned to bomb Bangkok and assassinate Israeli diplomats.
Dr Moore-Gilbert thanked the Australian government and diplomats for securing her release, as well as supporters who campaigned for her freedom.
“It has meant the world to me to have you behind me throughout what has been a long and traumatic ordeal,” she said.
The Middle Eastern studies lecturer said it was bittersweet to depart Iran, despite the injustices she was subjected to.
Read the article by Daniel McCulloch and Matt Coughlan in The Canberra Times.