TEHRAN – The Judiciary on Tuesday confirmed the detention of three Australian citizens that had been announced last week by the Australian government.

“Two of them had taken pictures of military facilities and restricted areas and the photos are available on the memory of the camera that have been detected,” Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said, according to the Judiciary news agency Mizan.

The third person was arrested for spying for a third country, the spokesman added.

“The court will decide whether this person (detained for spying) is guilty or not.”

Esmaili did not identify the detained people and gave no details about when they had been arrested.

The Australian Foreign Ministry last week said it was providing consular assistance to the families of three Australians detained in Iran after Britain’s Times newspaper reported that two British-Australian women and the Australian boyfriend of one of them had been detained in Iran.

The newspaper did not identify the dual British-Australians at the request of the British Foreign Office and said the Australian government was taking the lead in both cases.

SP/PA