Moore Gilbert: Iranian authorities asked me to spy for them
Kylie Moore Gilbert, who was imprisoned in Iran for two years, has said that the Islamic Republic authorities “repeatedly asked her to spy for them.” The Australian citizen has strongly criticized the Australian government’s approach to her case.
Kylie Moore Gilbert, a British-Australian researcher who was released from an Iranian prison in December, said in her first interview with Sky News that the Islamic Republic's authorities "repeatedly asked her to spy for them."
"I know that the reason they [Islamic Republic officials] didn't engage in any negotiations with the Australians was because they wanted to employ me," said Gilbert, who was imprisoned in Iran for two years.
In the interview, which was published on Tuesday, March 9, he also spoke about the abuse he suffered in Iranian prison. Gilbert said he was held in a “two-meter-by-two-meter box with no toilet, no television, no anything else.”
This researcher has even considered suicide and escaping from prison.
He also criticized the Australian government's approach to his case, which hid behind-the-scenes negotiations with Iranian authorities to secure his release from the media. "I think if my torture had been made public I would never have been sentenced to 10 years in prison," Gilbert said. "But there was no light, no attention, no one to hold them accountable."
According to him, after his arrest was reported in the media, "more attention to him" has improved his health and mental state.
Moore Gilbert was arrested by IRGC intelligence in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges. He was released in December in exchange for the release of three Iranian prisoners in Thailand who were accused of terrorist acts.
