A former Israeli ambassador to Thailand has slammed the release of three Iranian prisoners in what’s believed to be a prisoner swap deal to secure the freedom of British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert from an Iranian jail.
Dr Moore-Gilbert was released after spending more than 800 days in prison in an apparent exchange for three Iranians held in Thailand who had been linked to a botched Bangkok bomb plot against Israeli nationals in 2012.
Footage of the trio draped in Iranian flags and being greeted by Iranian officials was played by Iranian state media reporting on Dr Moore-Gilbert’s release.
The federal government has not confirmed or denied whether a prisoner swap deal was part of the arrangement to secure the academic’s freedom.
Three Iranians released by Thailand in exchange for the release of Kylie Moore Gilbert Source: IRBA
But Thailand has confirmed it approved the transfer under an agreement with Iran.
“These types of transfers aren’t unusual,” Chatchom Akapin, Thailand’s deputy attorney general, told The Associated Press.
“We transfer prisoners to other countries and at the same time receive Thais back under this type of agreement all the time.”
Israel’s former Thai envoy Itzhak Shoham said he was “saddened” to see the the trio had been freed.
“It saddens me to see the pictures as [the Iranians] celebrate instead of rotting in prison, if they haven’t already been executed,” he told local media, according to the Times of Israel publication.
SBS News has contacted the Israeli Embassy in Canberra for comment as well as Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne's office. Neither responded to the requests at the time of publication.
The former ambassador's comments come as details emerge of Dr Moore-Gilbert’s more than two-year long captivity.
Newspapers in Australia citing anonymous sources on Friday said she had been arrested in Tehran because of her relationship with an Israeli.
Iranian state media agency Fars also printed unfounded allegations claiming that Dr Moore-Gilbert had been recruited by Israeli intelligence agencies ahead of her arrival in Iran, and following her arrival had attempted to “gain access to the economic and military intelligence of Iran and the Resistance Front but she was identified by the Iranian intelligence forces and arrested”.
Dr Moore-Gilbert has strenuously denied ever being a spy, and has said Iran tried to recruit her.
"Please accept this letter as an official and definitive rejection of your offer to me to work with the intelligence branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps," she wrote, according to The Guardian.
"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.
