Freed Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert opens up on how a disgraced pro-Syrian professor acquitted of Sydney Hilton bombing launched a vicious campaign of harassment against her after her two-year Iranian jail ordeal
- Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert sentenced to 10 years jail in Iran for spying in 2018
- She was tried in secret and denied all espionage charges against her
- She was released in November in a prisoner-swap after government negotiations
- Dr Moore-Gilbert and pro-Syrian activist Tim Anderson have been at war online
- Anderson alleged and implied on social media she was an Israeli agent
An Australian academic who spent 804 days in one of Iran’s toughest prisons on trumped-up spying charges has detailed abuse by an obsessive troll.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was released by Iran in a prisoner swap deal in November, was accused of being an Israeli agent several times by Tim Anderson, who was sacked by Sydney University in 2019.
He in February labelled Ms Moore-Gilbert an ‘Israeli zealot’, claimed she had ‘military and leadership training in Israel’ and the government and ‘war media’ lied about her.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert (pictured above) spent more than two years behind bars in Iran after she was imprisoned on espionage offences
She is was accused of being an Israeli agent several times by Tim Anderson, who was sacked by Sydney University in 2019, in a campaign of harassment
Ms Moore-Gilbert fired back at pro-Syrian activist Dr Anderson, calling him an ‘Iran-puppet and conspiracy theory zealot’.
Dr Anderson met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad several times and is a well-known ‘anti-imperialist’ who often posts material in support of the Syrian regime on social media.
He has plenty to say about Dr Moore-Gilbert on social media, implying the spying charges were true despite being widely discredited.
Dr Moore-Gilbert was in Iran to attend a seminar on Shia Islamic studies and arrested by Islamic Revolutionary Guards as she prepared to board her flight back to Melbourne in September 2018.
She was previously married to a Russian-Israeli man, Ruslan Hodorov.
Dr Anderson made and repeated claims including that she helped organise ‘repeated terrorist murders’, and went on ‘missions’ to spy on the Iranian nuclear program.
Dr Anderson met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad several times and is a well-known ‘anti-imperialist’ who often posts material in support of the Syrian regime on social media
He in February labelled Ms Moore-Gilbert an ‘Israeli zealot’, claimed she had ‘military and leadership training in Israel’ and the government and ‘war media’ lied about her
On Saturday, Dr Moore-Gilbert slammed Dr Anderson in The Weekend Australian, as ‘a mouthpiece for these regimes’, who was ‘doing his job’ by promoting them.
‘It’s not just him; there’s quite a few useful idiots in Western countries who are happy to do a deal with these guys,’ she said.
‘I honestly don’t see any logical explanation for his fixation on me, that months after my release he’s still tweeting about me the same propagandistic stuff that was released by the regime.’
Dr Gilbert-Moore is understood to have blocked Dr Anderson on social media and some of his more ‘aggressive’ followers, who also abused her.
He is followed by 30,000 Twitter accounts.
Dr Anderson is a polarising figure who was convicted of ordering the 1978 Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing, but later acquitted.
He was fired from his job as a lecturer at Sydney University in 2019 after showing students an image of a Nazi swastika superimposed on the Israeli flag.
The Australian academic was released in November after spending 804 days in various hellhole prisons on trumped-up spying charges
Dr Gilbert-Moore supported Dr Anderson’s firing because his ‘anti-Semitic’ remarks should be ‘a fireable offence’ in any workplace.
‘We are, as academics, tasked with conducting research and teaching that is informed by data, and informed by the facts,’ she said.
‘The kind of narratives that this guy’s promoting do not at all appear to me to be informed by any research basis or factual basis that an academic would be speaking from.’
Dr Gilbert-Moore added that she believed Dr Anderson’s auidences with Bashar al-Assad were ‘scandalous’.
Dr Anderson denied he was a troll, but was tweeting about Dr Gilbert-Moore ‘because the corporate media, including The Australian, have been making this false argument there was no evidence about her being recruited by Israel — that’s not true at all’, he said.
‘Iran has posted a substantial video which has been posted on a number of sites, citing the evidence about her receiving military and leadership training in Israel.’
There is no evidence to support these claims.
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