‘Rise up’: Strike on notorious prison carried message for Iranians, released Australian says

An Australian academic who spent more than two years as a political prisoner in Iran says the Israeli missile strike on the notorious Evin Prison where she was held was a symbolic blow against Iran’s repressive regime, intended to send a message to Iranians about the weakness of their rulers.

Iranian state television shared black-and-white surveillance footage of the overnight strike at the prison, which is known for holding dual nationals and Westerners who are often used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert in Iran before her arrest.

“It was very affecting for me to see the footage of the strike on gates which I have passed through too many times to remember,” Kylie Moore-Gilbert told this masthead.

“In my view this was a symbolic strike designed to send a message to the Iranian people about the regime’s weakness. Evin Prison is a hugely potent symbol of the regime’s repressive apparatus and destroying the prison gates might have been a not-so-subtle nudge for the people to rise up and reclaim their freedom.”

Now a specialist in Middle Eastern political science at Macquarie University, Moore-Gilbert was arrested after attending a conference in Qom in 2018 and imprisoned by the regime in an act of hostage diplomacy. She was held in solitary confinement and sentenced to 10 years in jail on trumped-up charges of espionage but returned to Australia as part of a prisoner swap in November 2020.

“From what I can discern no prison blocks or residential wards were targeted, just the gates and some judicial and administrative buildings,” she said of the overnight strike.

“I am very worried about the prisoners inside, particularly as word has begun to emerge of terrifying scenes, with crazy behaviour from guards, [of] prisoners refused medical treatment and families gathering in desperation outside.”

After the strike social media posts contained descriptions of people being injured as guards raced to safety and of using force to strengthen security rather than aid injured inmates.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot accused Israel of putting two of its citizens in danger.

“The strike targeting Evin Prison in Tehran, put our citizens Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been held for three years, in danger. It is unacceptable,” Barrot wrote on social media X.

Barrot requested immediate access for his diplomatic staff and said the French prisoners were not affected by the damage on site. “All strikes must stop now to open the way for negotiations and diplomacy.”

Israel made clear that its strikes on the prison and other targets in Tehran were intended to hit the Iranian ruling apparatus broadly, along with its ability to sustain power.

“Viva la libertad!” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X, accompanying footage of an explosion at a building. Doubt over the video’s authenticity has since emerged.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Iran or significant damage, though the semiofficial Tasnim news agency said there had been a power cut reported outside of Tehran following the Israeli strikes.

The Mizan news outlet of Iran’s judiciary said urgent action was being taken to protect the health and safety of inmates there.

Iranian state television also aired footage it described as being shot inside Evin, with prisoners under control inside the facility.

However, the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran expressed worry about the condition of prisoners there. “Many families of current detainees have expressed deep concern about the safety and condition of their loved ones held inside the prison,” it said.

Moore-Gilbert said the welfare of the prisoners was the responsibility of the Iranian authorities.

Evin has long been Iran’s primary prison for housing political detainees and security prisoners, as well as the site of executions that remain strong memories for the opposition. Several high-profile foreign prisoners are also held there.

Iranian State TV aired footage showing Kylie Moore-Gilbert at an airport in Tehran after her release in 2020.Credit: Iranian State Television

“Every single person who has ever passed under these gates, or has been forced to stand outside them to film the regime’s propaganda, will be staring in disbelief at these scenes,” she posted on X in response to the attack.

Evin also has specialised units for political prisoners run by the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The facility is the target of both US and European Union sanctions.

Israel’s military said it had also struck Revolutionary Guard command centres responsible for internal security in the Tehran area.

Thousands of residents of Tehran, which has a population of about 10 million population, have fled after 10 days of bombing.

with Reuters, AP

Editor’s note: A video purporting to be CCTV footage of the strike has been removed from this story. It had aired on Iran state media, and was distributed by Israel’s foreign minister. However, there are concerns about the source of the footage, and its veracity.

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