Bangkok (IranNewsWire) – Between 2010 and 2012, Iran repeatedly attempted to assassinate Israeli citizens in various countries.
The most controversial incident took place in Thailand in 2012 when the roof of a house in Bangkok collapsed due to an explosion, following this, Iranian regime agents Massoud Moradi, then 28, had thrown two bombs in public places while fleeing, one of them exploded, amputating both of his legs.
Moradi was later sentenced to life in prison and his colleague Khazaei was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Two other Iranians managed to escape from Thailand before being arrested. Thai police at the time accused the three detainees of carrying out bombings against Israeli targets.
Since then, Iranian regime has been constantly trying to bring these agents back to Iran, but since their crime was so clear and obvious, it was not easy to get them back, then Iranian government has turned to the method that was experienced in other parts of the world including Lebanon. That was, taking foreign citizens in Iran hostage to exchange with their agents in prisons abroad.
For this purpose, Mullahs were looking for a suitable subject with which they could make this deal.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a British-Australian citizen and a Cambridge University graduate and Middle East researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, traveled to Iran in the summer of 2018 at the invitation of Al-Zahra University and Qom University of Religions to attend the 7th International Conference on Shiism. She was a good subject for the Mullahs!
She was arrested at Tehran airport in the fall of that year while returning to Australia and sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage.
This researcher and university professor had later said she had been told by Iranian security officials that her prison sentence would be reduced in exchange for her cooperation and espionage for them, but she did not accept it.
She wrote in a letter from Evin Prison last year; “IRGC had offered her in return for reduced prison terms to spy for this military institution of the Islamic Republic”.
According to the Guardian newspaper, she was detained in Ward 2A of Evin Prison under the supervision of IRGC and She said, last year she was shown two sentences, one for 13 months in prison, followed by her release, and the other for a confirmed sentence of ten years in prison.
According to Moore-Gilbert’s letter, if she accepted the “espionage offer”, her 13-month prison sentence would be upheld, and she would be released immediately because she had already served this time in prison, but because she refused to cooperate. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying.
Now after eight years the Iranian regime succeeded in taking back its imprisoned agents in Thailand, in exchange for release of Kylie Moore-Gilbert. And yesterday, these three individuals were returned to Iran and were welcomed by government officials. Of course, Iran did not reveal the identities of the three, but Thai officials confirmed the news of the return of three Iranian prisoners to Iran.
Giving in to this method of hostage-taking by the Iranian regime has made the Mullahs bolder and they rely more on this method of extortion.
Now the trial of a terrorist diplomat of the regime along with three other accomplices who were arrested two years ago and have been in prison since, for conspiracy to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in 2018 in Villepinte, France, started in Belgium.
A few days ago, the Iranian regime announced it intends to imminently execute an Iranian-Swedish citizen Dr. Ahmad Reza Jalali according to his wife. Dr. Jalali had been kept in Evin prison for several years. According to Dr. Jalali’s wife, who lives in Sweden, Dr. Jalali was transferred to solitary confinement to carry out the execution.
Khamenei wants to send a message with this news that he is ready to release this doctor in exchange for the release of his terrorist diplomat arrested in Belgium. And it remains to be seen what European officials will do about it! Will they give in to this blackmail by the regime or they will stand against it?!
