Secret, year-long mission secured release of academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert

The head of Australia’s intelligence community led a year-long effort to ­secure Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s release from Iran as it is suggested her partner is Israeli.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert shortly after being released from a Tehran prison, ending her detention of more than 800 days. Picture: Irib News Agency

The head of Australia’s intelligence community, Nick Warner, led a secret, year-long effort to ­secure the release of academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert in a prisoner swap deal with Iran, where she was serving a 10-year sentence on trumped-up espionage charges.

Director-General National Intelligence Nick Warner.

The Australian can reveal Mr Warner used back-channel contacts to negotiate with the Iranian regime, while Australia’s ambassador to Thailand, Allan McKinnon, lobbied Thai officials to release three Iranian terrorists as an ­exchange for the Melbourne University lecturer.

Dr Moore-Gilbert walked free on Wednesday night, wearing a surgical mask and grey headscarf. She boarded a government jet for the flight home to Australia after 804 days in some of Iran’s toughest jails. In a statement, she thanked her supporters, while declaring her “love and admiration for the great nation of Iran and its warm-­hearted, generous and brave ­people”.

The three terrorists, wearing leis and draped in Iranian flags, ­arrived back in their home country after being released by authorities in Thailand, where they were serving sentences for the attempted murder of Israeli diplomats.

Scott Morrison refused to confirm whether they were part of a swap for Dr Moore-Gilbert.

The Prime Minister said that commenting on the circumstances of Dr Moore-Gilbert’s release could endanger “other Australians who may for time to time find themselves in this situation”.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert leaves Iran’s Evin House of Detention. Picture: Irib News Agency

The federal government has always maintained the need for “quiet diplomacy” to secure Dr Moore-Gilbert’s release, despite pressure from her friends and colleagues, and was anxious to suppress news that her husband, who has not been identified, may be an Israeli national.

Dr Moore-Gilbert hinted she may have been singled out because of her husband, who friends say is Israeli, in one of her letters smuggled from prison.

“They have also attempted to use me as a hostage in a diabolical plot to lure my husband, an Australian permanent resident (and soon to be now citizen) into joining me in an Iranian prison… The Australian Foreign Ministry needs to consider whether the actions that have been taken against myself and my husband by an entity backed and supported by the Iranian state are those of a friendly nation.”

The Islamic studies lecturer was arrested at Tehran Airport in September 2018 by the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as she tried to leave the country. She was tried and convicted on espionage offences, and sentenced to 10 years jail.

She spent time in solitary confinement and was transferred earlier this year to the notorious Qarchak women’s prison, east of Tehran.

Multiple senior sources, who requested anonymity due to the classified nature of the operation, said her release was the result of a long-planned three-nation hostage diplomacy agreement.

Mr Warner, who retires as director-general of national intelligence at the end of the year after a four-decade career in foreign affairs and national security, served as Australia’s ambassador in ­Tehran in the mid-1990s and has maintained good relationships with Iran’s ruling elite.

“Nick has been central to this,” a source said. “He has got a lot of back channels to people there who we would have a lot of difficulty talking openly with. He knows the Iranian political system from his time there, and he has got connections with the people who run the country — with the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and the intelligence services — rather than the foreign ministry.”

Kylie Moore-Gilbert business-class flight back to Australia. Picture: Irib News Agency

Diplomatic sources said Mr McKinnon — a former deputy chief of Operation Sovereign Borders — was also integral to the strategy, which was hatched at least 12 months ago when it became clear that a prisoner swap would be needed to secure Dr Moore-Gilbert’s release.

He worked relentlessly at meetings and social functions to build the case for the prisoners’ release among Thai ministers and senior officials. Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who graduated from Duntroon in the 1970s and is known to have a personal ­affection for Australia, is understood to have been briefed on the agreement.

The released prisoners were described by Iran as “businessmen”. But social media accounts linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps identified the men as Saeid Moradi, Mohammad Kharzei and Masoud Sedaghat Zadeh, who were convicted over an attempted 2012 bombing of Israeli diplomats in Bangkok.

Moradi, who arrived in a wheelchair, lost his legs when a bomb he attempted to throw at police detonated at his feet.

One of the Iranian terrorists arrives in Tehran

Dr Moore-Gilbert said she did not blame Iran’s people for her more than two years of wrongful imprisonment.

“It is with bittersweet feelings that I depart your country, despite the injustices which I have been subjected to,” she said in a statement released on Thursday.

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

A support group formed by her friends and colleagues attacked what it said was Iran’s “despicable business model with huge human consequences”.

“Kylie was held to ransom by the Iranian regime, which saw fit to take an innocent Australian woman hostage in order to bring its own convicted prisoners abroad home,” the group said on Twitter.

The Prime Minister, who spoke to Dr Moore-Gilbert on Thursday morning, said it was “wonderful to hear her voice”.

Mr Morrison commended ­Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Australia’s ambassador Lyndall Sachs for their efforts to secure the academic’s release, “but also many other agencies and their ­officials who have supported this incredibly important task”.

Senator Payne said Dr Moore-Gilbert was “healthy and in good spirits”, and would be well-supported when she went into quarantine on arrival in Australia.