'FBI has not forgotten': Who is ex-Air Force officer Monica Witt who fled to Iran after spying?

The FBI reinforced its search for Monica Witt who is wanted in the US for allegedly spying for Iran, using her post as a US Air Force officer, before fleeing to Iran. "The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran's history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts," said Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Counterintelligence and Cyber Division. "The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us apprehend Witt and bring her to justice."

Witt defected to Iran in 2013 and the US is still trying to locate her. The agency announced a $200,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.

Witt entered the Air Force in 1997 and left in 2008, according to the Justice Department. She was also a Defense Department contractor until 2010. Prosecutors said Witt traveled to Iran in 2012 to attend a conference that criticized "American moral standards" and promoted anti-U.S. propaganda. She returned the following year and was given housing and computer equipment by Iranian officials. Authorities alleged she later began working on behalf of Tehran by sharing classified information and gathering intelligence on former US intelligence colleagues.

In February 2019, prosecutors alleged that Witt shared information about a classified Defense Department program with the Iranian government and assisted Tehran's intelligence services in targeting her former colleagues in the US government. Authorities said Witt worked with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's elite military force tasked with expanding Tehran's influence globally.

The FBI described Witt as a White woman with brown hair and brown eyes, 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighing 120 pounds. Her other names are Fatemah Zahra and Narges Witt, the agency said.