Updated ,first published
Iran’s second most senior diplomat in Australia defected from the hardline regime and received asylum in Australia three years ago in a remarkable development that has stayed secret until now.
News of the defection of Mohammad Pournajaf, the former charge d’affaires at Iran’s embassy in Canberra, came after a week dominated by the dramatic escape of seven members of the Iranian women’s football team delegation, one of whom later changed her mind and decided to return to Iran.
The London-based Iran International news service, which is not aligned with the regime in Tehran, reported on Friday that Pournajaf, a diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Canberra had submitted an asylum request.
But government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that Pournajaf applied for protection and was granted permanent residency in 2023, well before the latest conflict began.
His defection had not been previously reported.
Nader Ranjbar, a member of Canberra’s Iranian-Australian community, said Pournajaf was co-operating with anti-regime activists before seeking asylum in 2023.
“He decided to change his ways and help us. He decided to join the people and seek refuge,” Ranjbar said.
“No one knows where he is.”
Other active members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia said they were not aware of his defection.
As recently as February 2023, Pournajaf was hosting events in Canberra celebrating the Islamic revolution that brought the current theocratic regime to power.
According to reports from the time, Pournajaf told guests that the “Islamic Republic from the very beginning of its establishment faced extreme challenges that no other nation had to face”, and described it as “one of the very few nations in the region that has successfully conducted regular democratic elections since 1979″.
The federal government last year expelled Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, after domestic spy agency ASIO concluded that Iran had orchestrated the bombings of a synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher restaurant in Sydney.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told parliament this week that 21-year-old player Mohaddeseh Zolfi had changed her mind less than an hour after he publicly announced her defection.
“Unfortunately, in making that decision, she’d been advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy to get collected,” he said. “As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was.”
The other members of the soccer team who defected had to be moved to a new secure location.
A senior Iranian diplomat based at the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva, Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad, reportedly left his post and applied for asylum in Switzerland last month, claiming he was concerned about political repercussions if he returned to Iran.
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Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.