Fariba Adelkhah and Kylie Moore Gilbert will go on a "dry food strike" in Evin Prison starting Christmas Eve.
Fariba Adelkhah, a French-Iranian citizen, and Kylie Moore Gilbert, an Australian citizen, who are imprisoned in Iran, have published a letter asking their supporters to join them on a hunger strike on Christmas Eve.
This open letter, published by the Iranian Center for Human Rights, states that these two imprisoned researchers in Iran, on behalf of all academics and researchers throughout Iran and the Middle East who have been unjustly imprisoned for their research work, will stop eating and drinking and begin their dry hunger strike starting Tuesday, January 25.
Fariba Adelkhah, a researcher at the Paris Foundation for Political Science Studies, and Kylie Moore Gilbert, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, announced their joint hunger strike, saying that they not only demand their immediate release, but also want justice for the thousands of men and women who, without committing any crime, have suffered a similar or worse fate than these two prisoners and are currently in Iranian prisons.
These two prisoners in Evin Prison wrote in their letter, noting that Kylie Morgilbert was detained by the Revolutionary Guards for more than 15 months and Fariba Adelkhah for more than 7 months, and that during this time they were subjected to psychological torture and that their most basic human rights were violated.
On Christmas Eve, they invited their family, friends, and supporters to a one-day hunger strike, announcing that they would continue their hunger strike after Christmas.
The arrest of Fariba Adelkhah, a researcher at the Paris Foundation for Political Science Studies, by the IRGC’s intelligence agency in Tehran in June of this year has drawn reactions from some French officials. French President Emmanuel Macron was one of the officials who reacted to the arrest and demanded that Iranian authorities release Fariba Adelkhah.
Kylie Moore Gilbert, who specializes in Middle East affairs with a focus on the Persian Gulf countries, was one of three Australian citizens recently arrested in Iran, and her arrest was announced by the Iranian judiciary spokesman on charges of "security and espionage."
The United States Department of State has repeatedly condemned the Islamic Republic's regime's arbitrary and unjustified detention of American and other citizens, including dual-national Iranians, and called for their immediate and unconditional release.
Source: Voice of America
