Mum pleads guilty

Iranian-born Aussie admits to conspiracy offence in US court

AN Iranian-born Adelaide mother at the centre of a legal and political tussle between Australia, Britain, the US and Iran has pleaded guilty in a Minneapolis court to being part of a conspiracy to evade US sanctions and “illegally export controlled technology”.

Negar Ghodskani, 40, was pregnant when she was arrested on a US warrant in Australia in 2017.

She gave birth to a baby boy in custody in Adelaide while battling extradition to the US.

Ghodskani faces a maximum of five years in a US federal prison and a $US250,000 ($A369,000) fine after signing a plea agreement with American prosecutors, but her lawyer plans to ask for a timeserved sentence.

Ghodskani was a Tehranbased employee of Fana Moj, a communications company with its principal customer the Iran Government’s Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting radio and TV network.

The court heard in 2009 she helped establish “front company” Green Wave Telecommunication in Malaysia and falsely represented herself to US companies to acquire export-controlled technology.

“To the defendant’s knowledge, in nearly all cases, the purchased goods would be delivered to Green Wave’s office in Malaysia but then reshipped to Iran,” the plea agreement read. Ghodskani moved to Australia with her husband on a skilled migration visa in 2012.

Her attempts to apply for bail after her arrest in Adelaide failed, forcing her to be separated from her newborn baby.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif raised the political stakes during a visit to New York in April by proposing a prison swap involving Ghodskani for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian mother detained in Tehran.

“Nobody talks about this lady in Australia,” he said.

Ghodskani has asked to be sent back to Iran after she completes her sentence.