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| - Australian-British academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been freed in Iran after more than two years in jail for spying, in what the Islamic republic said Wednesday was a swap for three Iranian prisoners. State media broadcast images of Moore-Gilbert at a Tehran airport, accompanied by Australia ambassador Lyndall Sachs -- whose government later confirmed her release. In the footage, Moore-Gilbert is seen wearing a headscarf as well as a Covid facemask, which she removes helping to confirm her identity. She is then seen getting into white van carrying a brown bag. State television's Iribnews website also showed video of three unidentified men -- one of them in a wheelchair -- draped in Iranian flags and being met by officials including Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. "A businessman and two (other) Iranian citizens detained abroad on the basis of false accusations were freed in exchange for a spy with dual nationality working for" Israel, Iribnews said, identifying Moore-Gilbert by name. Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne expressed relief at Moore-Gilbert's release and said she "will soon be reunited with her family". Her friends told AFP in Sydney that they were "over the moon" and in a joint statement added: "an innocent woman is finally free. Today is a very bright day." Moore-Gilbert, who is in her early 30s, had been serving a 10-year sentence for spying, charges she had always vehemently denied. A lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne, Iran confirmed her arrest in September 2019 but it is believed she had been detained a year earlier. There was no immediate confirmation of the identity of the three Iranians that were part of the reported prisoner swap. It is believed Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran airport by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in September 2018 after attending an academic conference in the holy city of Qom, in central Iran. According to letters smuggled out of prison, Moore-Gilbert rejected Tehran's offer to work as a spy. She wrote that the first 10 months she spent in a wing of Tehran's notorious Evin prison run by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had "gravely damaged" her mental health. "Please accept this letter as an official and definitive rejection of your offer to me to work with the intelligence branch" of the Guards, she wrote. "I am not a spy. I have never been a spy and I have no interest to work for a spying organisation in any country. "When I leave Iran, I want to be a free woman and live a free life, not under the shadow of extortion and threats," she added. She said she had been shown two different decisions to her appeal -- one for a 13-month sentence, another confirming the original sentence of 10 years. "I am still denied phone calls and visitations, and I am afraid that my mental and emotional state may further deteriorate if I remain in this extremely restrictive detention ward," she wrote. She was eventually transferred to the general women's section of Evin prison, where British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held until being granted temporary leave due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband said she was "really happy" when he told her about Moore-Gilbert's release. "I don't know what it means for us, it's definitely a good thing for Kylie and it's definitely a good thing for all of us that deals are being done," Richard Ratcliffe told Britain's PA news agency. In October, friends said Moore-Gilbert had been returned to Evin prison, prompting fresh concern about her well-being. She had disappeared inside Iran's prison system a week earlier, sparking frantic efforts to learn her whereabouts. Conditions at Evin are believed to be marginally better than Moore-Gilbert's previous jail at Qarchak -- a women's facility that has been blacklisted under UN human rights sanctions. In one letter, Moore-Gilbert said she had been on hunger strike five times. Unconfirmed reports said she had attempted suicide. Throughout Moore-Gilbert's internment, friends and family had become increasingly critical of what they said was Australia's ineffective diplomatic approach. Australia's Payne said the release "demonstrates the value of professional and determined work, in the most appropriate way for each case, to resolve complex and sensitive consular cases." Iran, which has tense relations with the West, has over the years arrested several foreign nationals, most often on accusations of spying. They include French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, who was detained in the Islamic republic in June 2019. Two other Australians, travel bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin, were released in October 2019 by Iran, in another apparent swap for Iranian student Reza Dehbashi. "We were always extremely concerned that Kylie was imprisoned solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression and it's an enormous relief to hear of her release," Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, was quoted as saying on Twitter. ap-arb/dv
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