Iran says it released hostage

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Iranian state TV announced Wednesday the government released Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a 33-year-old British-Australian academic detained in Iran for more than two years, in exchange for three Iranians held abroad. Officials in Thailand said they transferred three Iranians involved in a 2012 foiled bomb attack back to Tehran. Moore-Gilbert arrived at the airport in Canberra on Friday afternoon and will quarantine before reentering the community, said Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

Why was she imprisoned? Authorities arrested Moore-Gilbert, a Melbourne University lecturer on Middle Eastern studies, in 2018 at the Tehran airport when she tried to leave the country. Officials sentenced her to 10 years in Evin Prison on charges of espionage, which she denied. Iran has been under pressure to release Moore-Gilbert, who said in a letter that she faced psychological torture.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Mindy Belz’s analysis on how quickly Iran could develop a nuclear weapon.

Editor's note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.

Rachel Lynn Aldrich

Rachel is a former assistant editor for WORLD Digital. She is a Patrick Henry College and World Journalism Institute graduate. Rachel resides with her husband in Wheaton, Ill.