Australian citizen Kylie Moore Gilbert released
Australian citizen Kylie Moore Gilbert was released on Wednesday, December 25, after nearly two years in detention. Images and reports in official media suggest she was exchanged for three Iranians who had been detained outside Iran for unspecified reasons. Ms Gilbert, who was detained in Iran about two years ago, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court late last year.
According to HRANA news agency, citing Tasnim, today, Wednesday, December 25, Australian citizen Kylie Moore Gilbert was released after about two years of detention.
According to the report, Kylie Moore Gilbert was released in a prisoner exchange with three Iranian citizens who were detained abroad for unknown reasons.
The report alleged that the Iranian citizens exchanged with Ms. Gilbert were three Iranian businessmen who were abroad attempting to circumvent sanctions imposed on Iran.
On Saturday, November 2, 2020, HRANA announced the transfer of Australian citizen Kylie Moore Gilbert from Qarchak Prison in Varamin to an unknown location.
Kylie Moore Gilbert was arrested by security forces in Iran in the fall of 2018 and transferred to a detention center in one of the security institutions in Tehran. It is said that the university professor had traveled to Iran in the summer of 2018 at the invitation of Al-Zahra University and the University of Religions and Denominations of Qom to participate in the 7th International Conference on Shia Studies, but in October of that year, she was arrested by “IRGC forces” while at the airport about to leave Iran.
In January of last year, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced that Kylie Moore-Gilbert had been arrested on charges of "violating Iran's national security" and that she would be sentenced to 10 years.
Kylie Moore Gilbert recently said that Iranian security officials had offered her to spy for the country in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. The Guardian and The Times previously reported that the Australian citizen had rejected the offer in a letter she wrote after being released from prison. Kylie Moore Gilbert wrote in response to the IRGC’s offer: “I am not a spy. I have never been a spy and I have no interest in working for any country’s intelligence services.” The university professor stated in her letter that being held in solitary confinement for ten months had “severely damaged” her mental health. She also added that she was still denied phone calls or face-to-face visits and feared that her mental and emotional condition would worsen if she continued to be detained under the current conditions.
She was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin as a punishment in August of this year. On Tuesday, October 12, 2019, Ms. Gilbert was transferred along with at least 15 other defendants and political prisoners from various wards of Qarchak Prison in Varamin to Ward 8, previously known as the Mothers' Ward, and has been held there alongside 10 other prisoners accused of public crimes.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is an Australian citizen, an assistant professor at the University of Melbourne, and an expert on political issues in the Middle East and the Gulf States. She is a graduate of the University of Cambridge. In addition to Australian citizenship, she also holds British citizenship.
Source: HRANA
