Two Imprisoned Researchers: We Have Been Subjected to Psychological Torture
Kylie Mogheilbert and Fariba Adelkhah, two Australian and Iranian academic figures with dual citizenship who have been held in Evin Prison for months, have gone on hunger strike and stated that they are imprisoned solely for their academic activities.
Kylie Mogheilbert and Fariba Adelkhah, two Australian and Iranian-French academic figures charged with “espionage” and held in Evin Prison, announced their hunger strike in an open letter and called for support for this protest action. The two have been in prison for 15 and 7 months respectively.
In a letter released on Christmas Day, December 24, they stated that during their detention they have been subjected to psychological torture and deprived of many of their basic rights.
Ms. Adelkhah and Ms. Mogheilbert have asked friends, family, and supporters to join their hunger strike in support of “academic freedom” and wrote that they have taken this action on behalf of researchers and academics in Iran and the Middle East who have been unjustly imprisoned solely for their research activities.
Part of the letter states that the support of the international community gives them energy to continue their struggle.
Kylie Mogheilbert, a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia, was arrested in Iran in autumn 2018 and sentenced to ten years on espionage charges. She holds dual Australian-British citizenship. The spokesman of the Judiciary announced on September 18 at his weekly press conference that she was detained for “espying for another country” and added: “She is also accused of espionage for her native country, and the final verdict is the court’s responsibility.”
Australia’s Foreign Minister described this prisoner’s case as very complicated and said efforts and negotiations for her release continue.
Fariba Adelkhah, a sociologist and researcher at the Paris Institute for Political Science Studies Foundation, who holds Iranian-French citizenship, was arrested at her home in Tehran in June 2019.
In early November, Human Rights Watch in Iran reported that “Fariba Adelkhah is being tortured,” to the extent that even “her cellmates can hear the sounds of her painful interrogations.”
French newspaper Le Figaro previously suggested that the Islamic Republic’s purpose in arresting Adelkhah might be to exchange her for Jalal Ruhollahi Nezhad, who is imprisoned in France and whom the United States is seeking to extradite. Ruhollahi Nezhad was arrested during a trip to France to purchase an industrial system in the city of Nice. Two federal judges in South Carolina have accused this Iranian engineer of attempting to purchase industrial microwave systems and anti-drone systems for shipment to Iran.
Source: DW
