The international media spotlight has turned on Thailand after diplomatic sources strongly indicated that the Australian woman, held in Iran on trumped-up espionage charges, was freed in return for the repatriation of three convicted terrorists to the Middle Eastern country from the kingdom. Two of the men were serving long sentences in a Thai prison before they were flown home on Thursday. Iranian TV celebrated the return of the men who were given a hero’s welcome and described them, colourfully, as economic activists fighting against crippling sanctions on Iran who had been released by Thailand in exchange for the freedom of what Iranian state propaganda termed a British Australian spy who worked for Israel and MI6.
The Thai government is denying that the release of three Iranian terrorists whose plot to assassinate Israeli diplomats in the kingdom rocked Bangkok when their bombs, with magnets attached, exploded prematurely in the heart of the city on St Valentine’s Day 2012. The move has been linked to a prisoner exchange agreement, brokered at an international diplomatic level, between Canberra and Tehran after 33-year-old UK Australian academic, Kylie Moore-Gilbert was let out of Evin Prison in Tehran and flown home to Australia on Wednesday after serving over two years of a ten-year prison sentence for spying.
Senior Thai officials have denied that the release of the three Iranian terrorists, convicted of attempting to assassinate Israeli diplomats in Bangkok in February 2012, is linked to the release of a dual British Australian citizen from an infamous prison in Tehran. Ms Moore-Gilbert was convicted of espionage in Iran and had served 804 days or over 2 years of a 10-year prison sentence imposed by an Iranian court convened in secret.
Deputy Attorney General, Chatchom Akapin, told the media that Thai authorities had approved the transfer of the three men; Saeid Moradi, Masoud Sedaghatzadeh and Mohammad Khazaei to Iran under a bilateral agreement with their counterparts in Tehran.
Thai official – ‘These types of transfers aren’t unusual’ as Bangkok denies any transfer deal
‘These types of transfers aren’t unusual,’ Mr Chatchom said. ‘We transfer prisoners to other countries and at the same time receive Thais back under this type of agreement all the time.’
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Bangkok was even more forthright. Spokesman Tanee Sangrat said that the release of the Iranians, who arrived home to Iran to a hero’s welcome this week, ‘had nothing to do with the release of the Australian academic in Iran’.
Mr Tanee said it was a routine transfer of prisoners held by Thailand to Iran and pointed out that one of the men, Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, had travelled home as a free man having received a royal pardon from the Thai King in August this year.
Iranian TV and state media feted the tree men as heroes on their return to Tehran on Wednesday
The three flew home to Tehran on Thursday and were later seen on Iranian state TV bedecked with garlands of flowers and the national flag.
State-controlled Iranian media clearly stated that the return of the three men was part of a ‘prisoner exchange’ linked with the UK Australian academic and scholar, Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
Ms Moore-Gilbert was taken on Wednesday from the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran and was seen boarding an aircraft with an Australian emblem on its tail.
It is reported that the Australian woman was flown to Australia to her family’s joy and delight, and is currently undergoing two weeks quarantine.
Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, spoke to Ms Moore-Gilbert over the phone and later cautioned reporters that it may take some time for the Melbourne based university lecturer to recover from her ordeal which Australian sources described as quite traumatic since her arrest and incarceration in one of the worlds’ most feared prisons.
Australian with dual UK Australian citizenship was arrested by Iran at a conference in Tehran in 2018
Ms Moore-Gilbert was arrested in Tehran in 2018 while attending a conference there. She was travelling on her Australian passport.
Her ordeal at Evin Prison includes several hunger strikes to protest her innocence after she was convicted in a sham trial and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, accused of being a spy for Israeli intelligence services and MI6.
The 33-year-old, Cambridge educated academic was overjoyed on Wednesday when she issued this statement: ‘It is with bittersweet feelings that I depart your country, despite the injustices which I have been subjected to. I came to Iran as a friend and with friendly intentions, and departed Iran with those sentiments not only still intact, but strengthened.’
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to confirm the swap but did not deny it either
Speaking to the press after talking with Ms Moore-Gilbert, the Australian Premier would not confirm whether her release was linked with the return of the three Iranian terrorists responsible for rocking Bangkok on St Valentine’s Day in 2012 when their bombs went off and blew up an apartment on Soi 71 on the Sukhumvit Road where they were staying. Several people were injured.
They planned to attach the bombs with magnets to vehicles carrying Israeli diplomats in the Thai capital until the plot catastrophically backfired.
‘We don’t confirm or make any comment on any of the suggestions that surround her release, that practice is there for good reason and that is because Australia works through diplomatic channels to resolve many issues of this nature,’ Scott Morrison told the press posse. He explicitly would not confirm or deny whether the release of Ms Moore-Gilbert was part of an exchange.
His Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, however, went a bit further and did confirm that the release was the result of high-level talks between governments.
‘I’m not going to comment on diplomatic discussions with other governments,’ she said.
Bombings rocked Bangkok on St Valentine’s Day 2012
The bombing in Bangkok on February 14th 2012 came as a shock to Thai authorities and just 24 hours after Israeli diplomats had been attacked by Iranian operatives in both India and Georgia.
Terror experts suggest that the calibre of the personnel involved suggests that this was not the handiwork of Iran’s Quds Force which is responsible for military intelligence and espionage but a lower grade operation designed to surprise. The goal was to intimidate and put Israel on notice.
Terrorist hit squad partied with prostitutes in Pattaya as their first order of business on arrival
The plot in Thailand involved five operatives including one woman who booked the accommodation in Bangkok.
When the group first arrived in Bangkok, on tourist visas, they headed to Pattaya City where investigators later found that they had partied and cavorted with prostitutes in the kingdom’s resort city with an international reputation for being flagrantly dispreputable because of its sex industry but which has since been quieted or tamed by the closure of Thailand’s borders because of Covid-19.
It appears something went disastrously wrong on February 14th 2012 as the bombs exploded at the property on Soi 71 in the Sukhumvit quarter of Bangkok nearly demolishing the accommodation and injuring up to five people.
Police quickly arrested Saeid Moradi as he ran from the scene but not before he lost his legs after throwing a grenade at them which bounced off a tree and landed on his path.
Mohammad Khazaei was arrested later at the airport in Bangkok as he attempted to flee the country back to Iran while Masoud Sedaghatzadeh escaped into Malaysia where he was subsequently arrested in 2017, extradited to Thailand and convicted. His sentence was never revealed.
A Thai court, in 2013, sentenced Mr Khazei to 15 years for his part in the plot and the legless Mr Moradi received a life sentence.
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Further reading:
Rapid progress being made on Bangkok bomb probe with 9 suspects already being held by police
Bizarre coincidence as schoolboys cause Friday’s Bangkok bomb that put workers in hospital
Two Muslim men questioned as security officials link Friday’s bombing to southern insurgency
Bombs and fires set off in Bangkok designed to cause early morning terror in the Thai capital
