Australian Researcher Imprisoned in Iran ‘Transferred to Qarchak Prison Quarantine as Punishment’
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent lawyer and prisoner in Evin, and Reza Khandan, her husband, have written on their Facebook accounts that Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British researcher imprisoned in Iran, “has been transferred to quarantine at Qarchak Prison as punishment”.
As Ms. Sotoudeh and Mr. Khandan wrote on Monday, “Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian citizen held in the security detention ward of Evin Prison, was transferred to quarantine at Qarchak Prison two days ago as a punishment. She said in a call from prison that conditions are very poor.”
The post continued that during this call she reported her “despair and severe depression” and said she cannot even eat anything.
Ms. Sotoudeh and Mr. Khandan quoted the imprisoned researcher as saying that “she last contacted her family about a month ago”.
Both also reminded that Qarchak Prison’s quarantine ward is filled with criminals accused of murder, drug trafficking, and other crimes, and contains “a significant number of coronavirus patients”.
Posts by Reza Khandan and Nasrin Sotoudeh have also been reflected in other media outlets, including the Australian newspaper “The Sterling”.
Ms. Moore-Gilbert was arrested nearly two years ago on charges of “espionage”. She is a researcher and professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia and was detained at the airport as she was returning to Australia.
Details of her case are unclear, and many observers consider it part of the detentions and cases related to dual-national prisoners in Iran, which stem from international disputes and sometimes merely efforts by the Islamic Republic for prisoner exchanges.
In December of last year, several of Ms. Moore-Gilbert’s letters reached British media outlets in which she expressed concern about her situation, lack of money, and neglect by the Australian government, and also reported a proposal by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to spy in exchange for a reduction in her prison sentence.
In April, Mr. Khandan stated that Kylie Moore-Gilbert “attempted suicide three times”.
However, two weeks later, the Australian Foreign Ministry, by publishing a statement from her family, said she “strongly” denied reports published about suicide attempts or torture.
Judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic and Australian officials have not yet responded to the latest posts published by Reza Khandan and Nasrin Sotoudeh’s account.
Source: Radio Farda
