Iran jails Kylie Moore-Gilbert she rejects to spy

An academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert currently imprisoned in Iran on charges of espionage has reportedly refused an offer to become a spy for Tehran in return for her freedom, BOL News learnt.

In the letters, addressed separately to a Mr. Vasiri, believed to be a deputy prosecutor in the Iranian judiciary, and a Mr. Ghaderi and Mr. Hosseini, who are thought to be officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Moore-Gilbert stated in basic Farsi that she had “never been a spy, and I have no intention to work for a spying organization in any country.”

She writes that she has little money to buy food, is denied phone calls to her family, and that her failing physical and mental condition has seen her repeatedly transferred to hospital.

She added: “Please accept this letter as an official and definitive rejection of your offer to me to work with the intelligence branch of the IRGC.”

She is serving a 10-year sentence for espionage, charges which she rejected, along with offers 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,” she wrote, according to the Guardian.

“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.

“When I leave Iran, I want to be a free woman and live a free life, not under the shadow of extortion and threats,” she added.

The academic’s arrest was confirmed in September.

She was accused of “spying for another country” but her family said at the time that she had been detained for months before that.

Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne, claimed she was shown two different decisions to her appeal — one for a 13-month sentence, another confirming the original sentence of 10 years.