Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members would be aware that Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who had been imprisoned in Iran now for over for 800 days, was released from custody in Iran last weekend and returned to Australia. I want to commend at this point the personal courage, strength and resilience shown by Dr Moore-Gilbert, who had to undergo an ordeal that none of us could ever imagine or foresee, and also her family, who have suffered largely in silence while maintaining hope and a vigil for her fate. I also want to thank the Prime Minister, the foreign minister and the many officials throughout the Australian government who have been involved in these negotiations now for two years, and Kylie's colleagues, friends and students who organised themselves in the Free Kylie Gilbert-Moore campaign to highlight the cause. It was important for Kylie to know she was never forgotten throughout her time in Iran.

Though we are relieved at her release, we should remember exactly what has gone on here. Kylie was an Australian academic visiting Iran at the invitation of an Iranian university to undergo studies. She was detained, she was imprisoned and she was tried in secret on evidence that we never got to see with an ineffective and improper legal counsel. She was never given a fair go and she never should have been held for one day, never mind 800 days. This practice from Iran of arbitrary detention and arrest of foreign nationals and hostage-taking simply has to stop.