Students suspected of spying for Iran

From The Australian, by Richard Kerbaj September 10, 2007:

NATIONAL security agents are closely monitoring Iranians at Australian universities, fearing some of the students are doubling as spies and reporting to Tehran.

State and federal security authorities are also keeping a close eye on Iranian students in Australia who are interested in becoming residents or citizens, amid growing suspicions that some may be intent on establishing an espionage foothold.

It is understood their concerns about Iranian students were sparked by calls to the National Security Hotline and information from local Persian leaders.

....The number of Iranian students studying in Australia has multiplied almost five-fold in the past five years. Most study engineering and surveying.

....Australia's Iranian community of 25,000 is largely made up of Shia Muslim migrants who left their homeland after 1979 to escape the Islamic revolution. Security sources said the Iranian Government was intent on monitoring them, fearing it was being undermined by their ideological and financial support of groups opposed to Tehran's regime.

Persian Cultural Foundation of Australia president Homer Abramian accused the Iranian regime of sending its agents to Australia under the guise of students, in some instances, and in other cases paying students to report back on local community affairs.

....Iranian youth leader Nosrat Hosseini said she believed some international Iranian students in Melbourne were spying on local community members opposed to the Tehran Government.
The Melbourne-based secretary of the Iranian Womens Association said the students often used the Faulkner Mosque, a Shia place of worship in Melbourne's north, as an entry point to community affairs and functions. She said the students were often interested in finding out information about the general sentiment held by the local community towards the Iranian regime.....