Accessibility links

Breaking News

Australian National Indicted For 'Spying' In Iran


This undated handout photograph released by the family of Kylie Moore-Gilbert via Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs shows a portrait of academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
This undated handout photograph released by the family of Kylie Moore-Gilbert via Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs shows a portrait of academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian national arrested in Iran has been charged and indicted with "spying," a spokesman for the Iranian Judiciary announced on Tuesday September 17.

In a September16 report, the Guardian wrote that " The British-Australian academic was arrested by the Iranian regime in September last year and has since been tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison."

The Guardian noted that "10-year sentences are regularly handed down for spying in Iran."

The spokesman charged that Doctor Moore-Gilbert has been arrested for spying for a country other than Australia but did not say when, where and how she was arrested.

Other reports say she was arrested in Iran in the Autumn of 2018 and has been in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since then. She is an expert on Persian Gulf Arab states.

The Iranian Judiciary spokesman added that two other Australian nationals, Jolie King and Mark Firkin have also been indicted for "filming military centers using a drone."

They were arrested by the revolutionary guards (IRGC) in Jajroud near Tehran, a location that according to foreign-based Iranian opposition groups is the venue of nuclear activities.

Australian officials have said talks are under way to secure the release of the three Australians jailed in Iran.

There is a long history of foreigners and dual-nationals being arrested in Iran as possible bargaining chips with Western governments. Currently there are several Wester Dual-nationals in detention in Iran, including British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the mother of a young child.

XS
SM
MD
LG