Australian Citizen Imprisoned in Iran: I Rejected IRGC’s Offer to Spy in Exchange for Reduced Sentence

The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday, December 30, that Kylie Moore Gilbert, an Australian university professor imprisoned in Iran, stated in letters that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) offered her to engage in “espionage” in exchange for “reducing her prison sentence.”

According to the report, Kylie Moore Gilbert rejected the IRGC’s espionage proposal, a fact demonstrated in these letters which were smuggled out of Evin Prison.

Kylie Moore Gilbert, who specializes in Middle Eastern affairs and Persian Gulf countries, was one of three Australian citizens recently detained in Iran. The Iranian judiciary spokesperson announced her arrest on charges of “security offenses and espionage.”

In handwritten letters reviewed by the Guardian, Ms. Gilbert claimed that “her detention has become political.” The newspaper reported that she is imprisoned in Ward 2A of Evin Prison under IRGC supervision. The Australian citizen stated that last year she was shown two sentences: one for 13 months imprisonment and possibly release, and another confirming a 10-year prison sentence.

Ms. Gilbert wrote in these letters that “she has little money to buy food, has been deprived of telephone contact with her family, and her physical and mental condition is poor, which has resulted in her being transferred to the hospital multiple times.”

According to the Guardian’s report, the imprisoned professor wrote to “her case officer”: “I absolutely reject your proposal to work for the IRGC’s intelligence department…. I am not a spy, have never engaged in espionage, and have no interest in working for any country’s intelligence agency.”

In one of the letters from last summer, Ms. Gilbert “appealed” for prison officials to transfer her from Ward 2A, which is under IRGC supervision, to the general women’s ward.

Shortly before this, Kylie Moore Gilbert went on a hunger strike in response to the court’s decision to reject her appeal against the 10-year prison sentence.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned the arbitrary and unlawful detention of American citizens and nationals of other countries, including Iranian dual nationals, by the Islamic Republic and has called for their immediate and unconditional release.

Source: Voice of America