Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has welcomed the release of a British-Australian scholar who had been detained in Iran for more than two years.
“I welcome news that Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been able to return to Australia and her family,” Raab said on Twitter on Thursday.
“I call on the Iranian government to release all the remaining dual British nationals arbitrarily detained and allow them to reunite with their loved ones,” he said.
Moore-Gilbert, 33, was a specialist in Middle East politics at the University of Melbourne. She was detained at an airport in Tehran while trying to leave the country after attending an academic conference in 2018.
She was sent to Tehran’s Evin prison and given a 10-year jail sentence for alleged spying. She had vehemently denied the charges and maintained her innocence.
Austalia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was “extremely pleased and relieved.”
Moore-Gilbert and her family asked for privacy, but issued a statement expressing gratitude for the work done to gain her release.
“Thank you also to all of you who have supported me and campaigned for my freedom,” she said, in a statement released through Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The Iranian regime has in recent years detained a number of foreign nationals and dual citizens, many of them on charges of espionage.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who has been campaigning for her return to the UK, welcomed reports of Moore-Gilbert’s release.
