Australian academic locked up in hellhole Iranian jail is ‘at breaking point’ as inmate who went on hunger strike with her is released from solitary confinement – where she remains
- Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert is living in ‘her own hell’ in Iran’s notorious Evin prison
- Recently tried to appeal her 10 year sentence for spying but request was denied
- Academic is ‘defiant’ by nature but her spirit is breaking in solitary confinement
Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) is in solitary confinement in one of Iran’s notorious prisons
An Australian academic who has spent 16 months in solitary confinement in Iran accused of being a spy has ended a hunger strike but remains ‘at breaking point’.
Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert is living in ‘her own kind of hell’ in Iran’s notorious Evin prison after she was arrested at the airport trying to board a flight back to Australia in October 2018.
The Islamic studies lecturer from the University of Melbourne was handed a 10-year sentence accused of spying on the nation during her trip, but the Australian government has rejected the charges.
‘Australia does not accept the charges upon which Dr Moore-Gilbert was convicted and continues all efforts to have her returned to Australia as soon as possible,’ a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman previously said.
Despite Australia’s best efforts, Dr Moore-Gilbert remains in her three-metre by two metre cell – about to become the longest female prisoner to be kept in solitary confinement.
A friend told News Corp ‘Kylie is defiant’, but that her spirit is breaking.
‘It’s really been brutal,’ the source said.
Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has written to the Prime Minister as her fight for freedom continues
On Christmas Eve, Dr Moore-Gilbert and her co-accused, French academic Fariba Adelkhah vowed to go on a hunger strike, protesting their treatment.
The French Government have successfully negotiated Ms Adelkhah’s reintergration into the prison’s general population.
Australia’s foreign minister has reportedly had repeated meetings with her Iranian counterpart regarding Dr Moore-Gilbert.
In December, an official statement from Tehran read it would not give into ‘political smear campaigns’ involving the Australian professor’s case.
The university lecturer has been detained in Evin prison (pictured in 2006) since last October
Pictured: Inside a corridor of the notorious Evin prison in Tehran as a guard monitors the halls
The nation last month denied her appeal of her 10-year sentence.
After the failed appeal, she smuggled an impassioned letter out of her cell bound for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a devout Christian, appealing to his religious beliefs.
‘Please I beg of you to do whatever it takes to get me out,’ the letter read.
‘I know that you’re a religious man and I ask that until that much-longed for freedom arrives, you remember me and my family in your prayers.’
Dr Moore-Gilbert had been in Iran as a guest speaker at a university conference when she was arrested at the airport after checking in for her flight home to Australia.
She was reportedly researching Iran’s relationship with the Shia community of Bahrain after a sectarian uprising in 2011.
There are now concerns tensions between the US and Iran after America’s attack on the nation’s top commander, Qassem Soleimani, could have adverse repercussions on foreign prisoners, according to the publication.
Dr Moore-Gilbert (pictured) recently lost an appeal against her 10 year sentence