= JAKARTA - The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is offering a reward of 200,000 US dollars (Rp3,521,710,000) for information on former Air Force agent Monica Witt, who authorities say defected to Iran in 2013.
In a statement released Thursday, the agency said Witt was believed to "likely still be engaged in supporting Iran's illicit activities."
"The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iranian history, there is someone who knows something about his whereabouts," said Daniel Wierzbicki, the FBI's top counterintelligence official in Washington, Anadolu (15/5) reported.
"The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us catch Witt and bring him to justice," he continued.
Witt, a former counterintelligence officer in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, served in the Middle East from 2003 to 2008.
In 2019, then-Assistant Attorney General John Demers accused Iran of recruiting Witt, who later defected and allegedly revealed "a highly classified intelligence collection program" and identified a US intelligence officer, "endangering the life of that individual."
Prosecutors allege that between January 2012 and May 2015, Witt conspired with Iranians in Iran and elsewhere outside the US to provide "documents and information relating to the national defense of the United States, with the intent and reason to believe that the same would be used to the detriment of the United States and to the benefit of Iran."
According to the indictment, after his defection, Iranian officials supplied Witt with "goods and services, including housing and computer equipment," to support his work. It is not yet clear whether he has legal representation in the US.
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