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This was published 3 years ago
Inside the secret mission to bring jailed Australian academic home from Iran
By Anthony Galloway and James Massola
Iranian authorities detained Australian university lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert after discovering she was in a relationship with an Israeli citizen, sparking baseless claims that she was a spy for Israel.
Dr Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British academic detained in Iran for more than two years, was released on Thursday morning in exchange for three Iranian men linked to a botched 2012 bomb plot in Bangkok.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert was detained for more than two years.Credit:
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal the Australian government played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in bringing Thailand to the table and engineering the prisoner swap deal that has allowed Dr Moore-Gilbert to be released.
The complicated prisoner-swap deal — which Prime Minister Scott Morrison repeatedly declined to confirm on Thursday — involved high-level negotiations with the Thai government.
Multiple senior government and diplomatic sources confirmed that Dr Moore-Gilbert was detained in Iran in 2018 after authorities found out her partner was Israeli.
This led to Iranian authorities stopping Dr Moore-Gilbert at Tehran airport while she was leaving the country after attending an academic conference in 2018. Authorities made allegations the Melbourne University lecturer was working as a spy for Israel and sentenced her to 10 years behind bars for espionage. The Australian government and Dr Moore-Gilbert rejected the Iran government's allegations as baseless.
Australian government sources, who asked not to be named as they had not been authorised to discuss the negotiations, said it had taken more than six months of at-times delicate discussions to put the deal together.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne was central to the "quiet diplomacy" strategy of intense negotiations and the inclusion of third party governments in the talks.
Senator Payne met her Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, four times over the past two years and raised Dr Moore-Gilbert's case on each occasion.
As Australia sought Dr Moore-Gilbert's freedom from jail, Iranian government officials made it explicitly clear they wanted Saeed Moradi, Mohammad Khazaei and Masoud Sedaghat Zadeh released by Thai authorities in exchange.
The three men were all detained in Thailand on charges of having planned to bomb the capital, Bangkok, in 2012 that authorities said was intended to target Israeli diplomats.
The request from Iran led to the Australian government approaching the Thai government to seek help with arranging the prisoner swap. Thailand agreed to the deal after months of high-level negotiations. Discussions were also held with the Israeli government.
Under the terms of the agreement, all of the involved parties agreed not to publicise the arrangement because of its diplomatically sensitive nature.
But the Iranian regime soon broke that undertaking.
News of the exchange was first broken by Iran's Young Journalist Club, a news website affiliated to state television in Iran, which trumpeted the release of the three men who faced "baseless charges" and were "exchanged for a dual national spy named Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who worked for the Zionist regime".
Thai officials on Thursday confirmed they had approved the transfer back to Tehran of three Iranians who were involved in a botched 2012 bomb plot.
Chatchom Akapin, the deputy attorney-general, told The Associated Press that Thai authorities approved the transfer of the prisoners under an agreement between Thailand and Iran.
"These types of transfers aren't unusual. We transfer prisoners to other countries and at the same time receive Thais back under this type of agreement all the time," he said.
Mr Morrison, who described Dr Moore-Gilbert's release as a "miracle" on breakfast television on Thursday morning, said negotiations to garner her release were not straightforward.
Senator Payne said the Australian government had always rejected the assertion Dr Moore-Gilbert was a spy.
"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," Senator Payne said at a press conference on Thursday.
She also said Dr Moore-Gilbert would need to spend two weeks in quarantine upon her return to Australia.
"She will have to go through the quarantine process, but she won't be doing that alone, we will make sure she is well supported and is able to just adjust after so long in detention to life back in Australia and to reuniting with her family in Australia in due course," Senator Payne told 2GB.
She added that she had spoken with Dr Moore-Gilbert in the early hours of Thursday morning and the Australian woman had been "remarkably positive".
"[She was a] very pleased young Australian woman, so relieved at leaving that detention facility and returning to Australia."
The prisoner swap deal has heightened concerns about Iran's "hostage diplomacy", with human rights groups fearing it will only encourage the regime to wrongly imprison other individuals in the future.
Elaine Pearson, Australian director of Human Rights Watch, welcomed the news of Dr Moore-Gilbert's release but criticised Iran's "deplorable use of hostage diplomacy".
"There is a clear pattern by Iran's government to arbitrarily detain foreign and dual nationals to use them in bargaining chips in negotiations with other states," she said.
Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, said: "Holding people hostage in exchange for terrorists is typical of the tyrannical Iranian regime.
"Unlike Dr Moore-Gilbert, who has never posed a danger to anyone, now that these men are free they will again present a threat of terrorist violence to innocent people," he said.
Liberal MP and former senior diplomat Dave Sharma said he was "tremendously relieved by news of Dr Moore-Gilbert's release, after what can only be described as a nightmare ordeal for her and her family".
"The Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the many government officials who worked on this case, quietly, tirelessly and resolutely over many months, deserve our gratitude and thanks," Mr Sharma said.
Both Dr Moore-Gilbert and her family asked the media to respect her and her family's privacy, asking for space to "re-adjust and re-acclimate after such a traumatic experience".