Teh One Who Knocks
09-13-2019, 10:37 AM
Alexandra Ma. Insider
https://i.imgur.com/riRKY3xl.jpg
Iran has detained two travel influencers who were traveling the country and said they were documenting their trip on social media as a way to "break the stigma" around countries with scary reputations.
Jolie King and her boyfriend, Mark Firkin, are being held in Tehran's high-security Evin Prison, according to Pouria Zeraati, the editor-in-chief of the Persian-language channel Manoto TV.
Zeraati said they had been there since their arrest in July on charges of flying a drone without a license.
Firkin is an Australian national, while King is a British-Australian dual citizen. Officials in Australia confirmed that the couple was being detained.
They were arrested by security forces in Jajrood, an area to Tehran's east, Manoto TV reported Wednesday.
https://i.imgur.com/LrAstK2l.jpg
"According to an informed source, this arrest had no political element, but was for flying the drone," Manoto TV said Wednesday.
A representative for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Insider in a statement that it was "providing consular assistance" to King's and Firkin's families.
News of their arrest came to light Wednesday, with Manoto TV revealing the couple's names later in the day. They have not yet had a trial, Zeraati added.
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King and Firkin were in Iran as part of a long road trip from their home in Cottesloe, Western Australia, to London. The pair quit their jobs to travel the world.
They had been documenting their voyage on their Instagram and YouTube pages — named "The Way Overland." They have about 20,000 followers on each platform.
They have not updated their YouTube channel since June 25 or their Instagram page since June 26.
BajABU5HZtF
The couple said their blogging was meant to "break the stigma" around countries like Iran that "get a bad rap in the media."
"Our biggest motivation behind making the vlogs is to hopefully inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad wrap in the media," the couple wrote on their Patreon crowdfunding page.
This is the last video they uploaded, shot in Pakistan and uploaded in June:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhtA-HTFVsk
Officials in Australia circulated a brief statement from the King and Firkin families after news of their detention became public.
"Our families hope to see Mark and Jolie safely home as soon as possible," the statement said. "We have no further comment to make at this stage and ask that the media respects our privacy at this difficult time."
King is detained in the same women's ward of Evin Prison as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual citizen who has been detained in Iran since April 2016.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe is accused of spying on the government when she had in fact gone to visit family in the country. Her detention has become a defining issue in British-Iranian relations.
Australia is leading the consular efforts in all three cases, The Times of London reported. Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office declined to confirm or comment on any of the three cases.
An FCO spokesman told Insider the agency was lobbying Iran on the detention of British citizens more broadly. The spokesman told Insider that British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab "raised serious concerns" about the issue in a meeting Wednesday with the Iranian ambassador.
Raab has also promised that he and Prime Minister Boris Johnson would bring up the issue of detained British nationals to Iran at the UN General Assembly later this month, The Times reported.
https://i.imgur.com/gaQ8GBfh.png
Tensions between Iran and the West are elevated over disagreements involving Iran's nuclear program and maritime skirmishes in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Australian and British governments have long warned their citizens to seriously reconsider their travels to Iran and have warned people not to travel to the country's eastern and western borders.
https://i.imgur.com/riRKY3xl.jpg
Iran has detained two travel influencers who were traveling the country and said they were documenting their trip on social media as a way to "break the stigma" around countries with scary reputations.
Jolie King and her boyfriend, Mark Firkin, are being held in Tehran's high-security Evin Prison, according to Pouria Zeraati, the editor-in-chief of the Persian-language channel Manoto TV.
Zeraati said they had been there since their arrest in July on charges of flying a drone without a license.
Firkin is an Australian national, while King is a British-Australian dual citizen. Officials in Australia confirmed that the couple was being detained.
They were arrested by security forces in Jajrood, an area to Tehran's east, Manoto TV reported Wednesday.
https://i.imgur.com/LrAstK2l.jpg
"According to an informed source, this arrest had no political element, but was for flying the drone," Manoto TV said Wednesday.
A representative for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Insider in a statement that it was "providing consular assistance" to King's and Firkin's families.
News of their arrest came to light Wednesday, with Manoto TV revealing the couple's names later in the day. They have not yet had a trial, Zeraati added.
BkwFiaXnRBh
King and Firkin were in Iran as part of a long road trip from their home in Cottesloe, Western Australia, to London. The pair quit their jobs to travel the world.
They had been documenting their voyage on their Instagram and YouTube pages — named "The Way Overland." They have about 20,000 followers on each platform.
They have not updated their YouTube channel since June 25 or their Instagram page since June 26.
BajABU5HZtF
The couple said their blogging was meant to "break the stigma" around countries like Iran that "get a bad rap in the media."
"Our biggest motivation behind making the vlogs is to hopefully inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad wrap in the media," the couple wrote on their Patreon crowdfunding page.
This is the last video they uploaded, shot in Pakistan and uploaded in June:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhtA-HTFVsk
Officials in Australia circulated a brief statement from the King and Firkin families after news of their detention became public.
"Our families hope to see Mark and Jolie safely home as soon as possible," the statement said. "We have no further comment to make at this stage and ask that the media respects our privacy at this difficult time."
King is detained in the same women's ward of Evin Prison as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual citizen who has been detained in Iran since April 2016.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe is accused of spying on the government when she had in fact gone to visit family in the country. Her detention has become a defining issue in British-Iranian relations.
Australia is leading the consular efforts in all three cases, The Times of London reported. Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office declined to confirm or comment on any of the three cases.
An FCO spokesman told Insider the agency was lobbying Iran on the detention of British citizens more broadly. The spokesman told Insider that British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab "raised serious concerns" about the issue in a meeting Wednesday with the Iranian ambassador.
Raab has also promised that he and Prime Minister Boris Johnson would bring up the issue of detained British nationals to Iran at the UN General Assembly later this month, The Times reported.
https://i.imgur.com/gaQ8GBfh.png
Tensions between Iran and the West are elevated over disagreements involving Iran's nuclear program and maritime skirmishes in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Australian and British governments have long warned their citizens to seriously reconsider their travels to Iran and have warned people not to travel to the country's eastern and western borders.