Iran tried to recruit me as a spy: jailed British-Australian

A British-Australian university lecturer jailed in Tehran has said she feels “abandoned and forgotten” and claimed Iran tried to recruit her as a spy.

In letters smuggled out of her cell in Evin prison and seen by both The Times and The Guardian, Cambridge-educated Kylie Moore-Gilbert begged to be allowed to leave the restrictive unit where she has served periods in solitary confinement.

Dr Moore-Gilbert, who most recently worked as a lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Melbourne, was arrested in September 2018 while at an educational conference and later convicted of espionage.

She is understood to be serving a 10-year sentence, but has described being shown two conflicting sentences, one outlining 13 months’ imprisonment and the other a decade-long term.

Ten letters, written in crude Farsi, were sneaked out of the prison.

The letters are variously addressed to three men. One, named Mr Vasiri, is thought to be a deputy prosecutor in the Iranian judiciary, while Mr Ghaderi and Mr Hosseini are thought to be mid-ranking officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In the letters, Dr Moore-Gilbert referred to meetings with these men, who appear to have influenced her treatment in prison, including being allowed access to books.

The prison section she is being held in is reportedly run by the IRGC, while her case is managed by the judiciary.

Dr Moore-Gilbert detailed the conditions she has endured while incarcerated.

Read the article in The New Daily (AAP).