Academic held in Iran for two years says imprisonment pushed her to brink of suicide

A British-Australian academic who spent two years detained in Iran said on Tuesday she was kept in solitary confinement for seven months, in what she described as "psychological torture" that left her contemplating suicide.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was detained in Iran in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, was released late last year in exchange for three Iranians who had been detained abroad.

Speaking for the first time publicly, Moore-Gilbert said she was kept in a 4 square meter cell with only a telephone to communicate with prison guards.

"You go completely insane. It is so damaging. I felt physical pain," Moore-Gilbert told Sky News Australia.

Moore-Gilbert, a specialist in Middle East politics at the University of Melbourne, said her mental health deteriorated after two weeks.

"I thought if I could, I would kill myself."

After nine months imprisonment, Moore-Gilbert was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which she sought to oppose through a series of hunger strikes.

In her most daring opposition, however, Moore-Gilbert said she once attempted to escape.

"One day I was just like, 'You know what? I'm going to do it. I have nothing to lose'," Moore-Gilbert told Sky News.

"There were spikes on part of the wall, so I just took some socks with me and put them over my hands and then grabbed onto them, hoping they weren't too sharp."

Once on the roof of the prison, Moore-Gilbert said she could have scaled down the walls and made a run for a nearby town. However, she said she decided not to proceed as she was in a prison uniform, didn't speak the local language and feared the consequences of being caught.

Eventually she was released in a prisoner swap and back in Australia, Moore-Gilbert said she is focused on her recovery.