Was academic arrested in Iran because she knew of Tehran’s links to Bahrain uprising?
A BRITISH-Australian academic jailed in Iran on spying charges is believed to have been carrying out politically-sensitive research.
Cambridge-educated Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who teaches Middle Eastern politics at Melbourne University, has been in solitary confinement at the notorious Evin prison for almost a year.
The academic is believed to have been researching a subject regarded as controversial in Iran – the Islamic Republic’s relationship with the Shia community of Bahrain after a sectarian uprising in 2011. Iran is accused by its neighbours of instigating and supporting the Shia population of Bahrain to rise against its Sunni government, in a bid to extend its control inside the tiny Arab kingdom.
Dr Moore-Gilbert is feared to have been tried in a secret court, after which she was sentenced to ten years for spying.
The lecturer’s identity emerged only days after that of another British-Australian detainee called Jolie King, and her Australian boyfriend, Mark Firkin, were revealed. The two travel writers are also at Evin prison, alongside British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a mother of one, who has been in jailed on spying charges since 2016. The Australian government said it was lobbying Tehran to ensure that the prisoners are appropriately cared for and released early.
The identity of Dr MooreGilbert as a prisoner at Evin was revealed by London-based Iranian TV channel Manoto.
Editor-in-chief Pouria Zeraati said Dr Moore-Gilbert, Ms King and Mr Firkin may be used as bargaining chips to demand the release of Iranian prisoners in the West. He added: ‘Foreign prisoners are always used as hostages by the Iranian government, that’s what they are.’