Kylie Moore-Gilbert, jailed academic, 'rejected Iran's offer to become spy'
21 January 2020
A British-Australian woman jailed in Tehran has said she rejected an offer from Iran to become a spy. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer at Melbourne University, has been in jail since September 2018, serving 10 years for espionage. In letters smuggled out of Tehran's Evin prison, she says has "never been a spy" and fears for her mental health. She says she has been denied visits and phone calls and has been held in an "extremely restrictive detention ward". Extracts of the letters have been published in the Guardian and Times. The Guardian says the letters were written by the Middle East expert to Iranian officials and span the period from June to December 2019. One to her "case manager" indignantly turns down the offer to become a spy for Iran. "Please accept this letter as an official and definitive rejection of your offer to me to work with the intelligence branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," she writes. "I am not a spy. I have never been a spy and I have no interest to work for a spying organisation in any country." In other letters she says "my health has deteriorated significantly", having been taken to Baghiatallah Hospital twice and the jail's infirmary six times. "I think I am in the midst of a serious psychological problem," she says, worsened by "the ban on having any phone calls with my family". Dr Moore-Gilbert remains adamant that she is "an innocent woman... imprisoned for a crime I have not committed". The Cambridge-educated academic was travelling on an Australian passport and was detained at Tehran airport in 2018 as she tried to leave following a conference. She was tried in secret last year for espionage and is being held in an isolated IRGC-run wing of Evin, the Guardian says. It says she has spent months in solitary confinement in a small cell. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne says she has pressed for Dr Moore-Gilbert's release but Iran has not moved. In October, British-Australian woman Jolie King and her Australian boyfriend Mark Firkin were released after being jailed in Tehran earlier in 2019, reportedly for flying a drone without a permit. Australia returned a jailed Iranian student, Reza Dehbashi Kivi, at roughly the same time. British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been jailed for more than three years over spying allegations she denies.
The Guardian says the letters were written by the Middle East expert to Iranian officials and span the period from June to December 2019. One to her "case manager" indignantly turns down the offer to become a spy for Iran. "Please accept this letter as an official and definitive rejection of your offer to me to work with the intelligence branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," she writes. "I am not a spy. I have never been a spy and I have no interest to work for a spying organisation in any country." In other letters she says "my health has deteriorated significantly", having been taken to Baghiatallah Hospital twice and the jail's infirmary six times. "I think I am in the midst of a serious psychological problem," she says, worsened by "the ban on having any phone calls with my family". Dr Moore-Gilbert remains adamant that she is "an innocent woman... imprisoned for a crime I have not committed".
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What has Dr Moore-Gilbert said in her letters?
The Cambridge-educated academic was travelling on an Australian passport and was detained at Tehran airport in 2018 as she tried to leave following a conference. She was tried in secret last year for espionage and is being held in an isolated IRGC-run wing of Evin, the Guardian says. It says she has spent months in solitary confinement in a small cell. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne says she has pressed for Dr Moore-Gilbert's release but Iran has not moved. In October, British-Australian woman Jolie King and her Australian boyfriend Mark Firkin were released after being jailed in Tehran earlier in 2019, reportedly for flying a drone without a permit. Australia returned a jailed Iranian student, Reza Dehbashi Kivi, at roughly the same time. British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been jailed for more than three years over spying allegations she denies.
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What led to her imprisonment?