Iran: Kylie Moore-Gilbert detained for being Israeli spy for Bahraini MP
Moore-Gilbert was released on November 25 in exchange for three Iranians involved in an attempted bombing attack in Bangkok, Thailand, aimed at killing Israeli diplomats.
By CODY LEVINEKylie Moore-Gilbert, who was detained in Iran in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, is pictured after she was released in exchange for three Iranians who had been detained abroad, in Tehran Iran, in this still image taken from a video and obtained on November 26, 2020.(photo credit: REUTERS)
An Iranian misinformation campaign on state-run TV has claimed that Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the British-Australian academic held in prison for two years and then released in a prisoner swap, was an Israeli spy working with a Bahraini ex-MP, according to a Guardian news report Wednesday.Moore-Gilbert was detained in September 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison as she was preparing to depart Iran following an academic conference she attended in Tehran.The media campaign launched by Iran via state-run TV in a 10 minute segment on Moore-Gilbert showed pictures of her traveling, her wedding and time spent with family and friends, including a picture of her in Jerusalem. The academic was allegedly flagged as "suspicious" by another academic at the conference for asking questions on a subject she was seeking to research, while other sources claim that she was arrested due to being in a relationship with an Israeli.A video aired on state-run TV said that Moore-Gilbert was recruited as a Mossad agent, giving her an academic position at Cambridge University and even claiming she has ties with the IDF and intelligence officials. Likewise, the clip also claimed that Moore-Gilbert attended a training camp in Haifa.“As per her training and to avoid any threat, she went to all places where tourists visit and made calls from those areas and took photographs,” the report claimed."She was told to hide her travels to Israel and also her contacts with Israelis.”The report also claimed that Moore-Gilbert was working with Jasim Husain, a former Bahraini MP and economist of the Al-Wefaq Party, which represents the Shi'ite community, who offered to help her spy on Bahraini Shi'ite exiles living in Iran.Husain apparently met Moore-Gilbert at another academic conference in Brisbane some weeks prior to her Iran trip in 2018. The former Bahraini MP said that he knew of her trip to Iran, and thought that Moore-Gilbert was arrested due to meeting with the exiles. Many of them fled Bahrain during the Arab Spring.Husain further claimed that Iran views him as an enemy for holding "moderate views," which has left him concerned for his security even as a resident of Bahrain.
Moore-Gilbert was released on November 25 in exchange for three Iranians involved in an attempted bombing attack in Bangkok, Thailand, aimed at killing Israeli diplomats in 2012, which failed and resulted in the explosion of the apartment where the men were staying.
