SYDNEY: An Australian-British academic jailed for spying by Iran has been released after two "traumatic" years behind bars, in a swap for three Iranians linked to a botched Bangkok bomb plot.

Middle East scholar Kylie Moore-Gilbert said Thursday that departing Iran was "bittersweet" despite "injustices" endured during more than 800 days detained in the country's toughest prisons.

The 33-year-old was arrested by Iran's hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2018, after attending an academic conference in the holy city of Qom in central Iran. She was later charged with espionage and sentenced to ten years in jail. Her release was secured as part of a prisoner swap for three men linked to a failed plot to assassinate Israeli diplomats in Thailand in 2012.