Iran releases two Australian citizens

By Recep Sakar

MELBOURNE (AA) - Two Australian-British travel bloggers are released from an Iranian prison on Saturday after three months of arrest over flying drone without permit in the capital Tehran.

All charges against the social media phenomenons, Mark Firkin and Jolie King, have been dropped, according to Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne on Saturday.

Payne said that the couple looked happy and relieved, and added: “For Jolie and for Mark, the ordeal they have been through is now over, they are being reunited with their loved ones.”

Firkin and King have been travelling around the world since 2017, documenting their experiences in a blog called The Way Overland. The couple were arrested in Tehran three months ago over unauthorized drone flying, and were held in the Evin prison since then.

Another British-Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer at Melbourne University, however, is still held in a prison in Iran with charges of spying for another country and endangering national security.

Foreign Minister Payne described the situation as “very complex”.

“We are continuing our discussions with the Iranian government and we do not accept the charges upon which she was convicted and we would seek to have her returned to Australia,” Payne added.

A graduate of Cambridge University, Dr.Moore-Gilbert, was working as a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Asia Institute at Melbourne University.

* Writing by Rabia Iclal Turan