AN Australian academic jailed in Iran for espionage must serve her jail sentence, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran said yesterday, stressing it will not submit to “propaganda”.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert reportedly began a hunger strike at Tehran’s Evin prison on Tuesday after losing an appeal against a 10-year sentence.

Australia has expressed “deep concern” over the matter, with Foreign Minister Marise Payne calling for Moore-Gilbert to be treated “fairly, humanely and in accordance with international norms”.

In Tehran yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said “Iran will not submit to political games and propaganda” in response to “certain reports” in Australian media.

Moore-Gilbert, “like any other individual with a sentence, will serve her time while enjoying all legal rights”, he added.

The academic’s arrest was confirmed in September. She was accused of “spying for another country”, but her family said at the time she had been detained for months before that.

Moore-Gilbert and Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah, also detained, began an indefinite hunger strike on Christmas Eve, said France’s Sciences Po University on Thursday.

Adelkhah’s arrest over “espionage” was confirmed in July. She is a specialist in Shia Islam and research director at Sciences Po.

Mousavi said Moore-Gilbert was detained for “violating Iran’s national security”, and her sentence was issued in accordance with “all the related laws”.

He said Iran will not forget Australia’s “illegal” treatment of Negar Ghodskani, an Iranian arrested in 2017 for violating US sanctions on Iran.

Ghodskani gave birth in Australian custody before being extradited to the US.

She was sentenced in the US for violating sanctions on Iran, but was released in September and returned home. – AFP, December 29, 2019.