Iran charges three detained Australians with spying

TEHRAN: Iran has charged three detained Australians with spying, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday, after the reported arrest of a travel-blogging couple and an academic.

Two of the Australians were alleged to have used a drone to take pictures of military sites, while a third was accused of spying for another country, spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters.

It was the first official confirmation that Australians have been detained in Iran after the families of three of them said last week they had been arrested in the Islamic republic. They identified them as a travel-blogging couple Jolie King and Mark Firkin and Melbourne University lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

"The news is correct," Esmaili said in a video posted on the state television website, adding the matter involved two separate cases. "One case is of two people taking photos of military sites and our forbidden areas," the judiciary spokesman said.

The pair had been identified at the time and images were found on a drone they were using, he added. The other case involved an individual accused of "spying for another country", said Esmaili.

"Criminal charges have been issued for both cases and they are waiting for their trial," he said. "It will be the court that rules if they are guilty and need to be sentenced or whether to issue another verdict."

It is unclear from official sources in Iran when the trio were arrested and where they are being held. Canberra, which first revealed three of its citizens had been detained in Iran on September 11, has said it is providing consular assistance for the three detainees.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said there was "no reason" to believe the arrests were politically motivated. The travel-blogging couple had been documenting their journey on social media for the past two years but went silent about 10 weeks ago after posting updates from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan.

The family of Moore-Gilbert said on Saturday that she had been held in Iran for a "number of months". The academic specialises in Middle East politics with a focus on Gulf states.

News of their detention came after Australia said it would join a US-led coalition in the Strait of Hormuz, following attacks and seizures involving a number of tankers in the strategic waterway.

On August 21, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a "modest" Australian contribution to the US-led coalition to escort commercial vessels in the strait -- a chokepoint for around a third of the world’s seaborne oil. The contribution includes a P8 Poseidon aircraft to patrol the region for a month later this year and a frigate with a crew of about 170 to be deployed for six months from January.