An image grab from footage obtained from Iranian State TV IRIB on Nov 25, 2020, shows Australian-British academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was serving a 10-year prison sentence for spying, during her release in Iran. ( IRIB NEWS AGENCY / AFP)

DUBAI - Iran has exchanged a jailed British-Australian academic, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, with three Iranians who had been detained abroad, Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported on Wednesday.

Moore-Gilbert, a specialist in Middle East politics at the University of Melbourne, was detained in Iran in September, 2018 and had been serving a 10-year sentence for espionage.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday he had spoken with Moore-Gilbert ahead of her return

“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.

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

She has denied any wrongdoing.

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday he had spoken with Moore-Gilbert ahead of her return, while Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne welcomed her release.

"I am extremely pleased and relieved to advise that Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been released from detention in Iran and will soon be reunited with her family,”Payne said in a statement.

State TV said that an Iranian businessman and two Iranian citizens who had been held abroad “on baseless charges” had been exchanged for Moore-Gilbert

“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.”

State TV said that an Iranian businessman and two Iranian citizens who had been held abroad “on baseless charges” had been exchanged for Moore-Gilbert.

It gave no further details about the three Iranians, but said they were detained for trying to circumvent US sanctions, reimposed on Iran in 2018 when Washington exited Iran’s nuclear deal with six powers.

Footage aired by state TV showed Moore-Gilbert at the airport with a headscarf, appearing to be waiting to board a plane to leave Iran.

The footage also showed three men wearing face-masks with Iranian national flags on their shoulders and one in a wheelchair with his both legs amputated at the knee, were welcomed at the airport by Iranian officials with chants of “Allahu akbar” (God is Greatest).

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There was no immediate comment from Britain’s Foreign Office.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.

Rights activists have accused Iran of arresting dual nationals to try to win concessions from other countries. Tehran denies it holds people for political reasons and has accused many of the foreigners in its jails of espionage.