Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert who spent 804 days in Iranian jail warns of increasing political prisoner risks

An academic who spent years wrongfully jailed in Iran has warned of increasing attempts by foreign governments to take political hostages in a bid to deter Australia from acting on human rights and other concerns.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Prof Sean Turnell and Cheng Lei at DFAT in Canberra for the News Corp "Dear Evan" campaign, in which they are raising awareness about the Wall Street Journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia on bogus spying charges for a year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

An academic who spent years wrongfully jailed in Iran has warned of increasing attempts by foreign governments to take political hostages in a bid to deter Australia from acting on human rights and other concerns.

Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert said she feared a rise in hostile states arbitrarily locking up academics, writers and journalists as bargaining chips was constraining diplomatic efforts to address other abuses due to the risk of negatively impacting an innocent detainee.

“I think often unfortunately when we have cases of Australians detained abroad as political leverage, it does affect our decision-making about some of these broader human rights issues, or even deciding not to impose sanctions or say not to address (security concerns about) TikTok,” she said.

Dr Moore-Gilbert, who spent 804 days in an Iranian jail on spurious espionage charges before her release was negotiated as part of a prisoner swap in 2020, said she was also concerned about the “chilling effect” wrongful detention had on journalists and academics researching “in the field” in places like Russia, Iran and China.

“It’s really concerning any time that a journalist or researcher is arrested and thrown in prison simply for doing their job,” she said.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert spent more than two years locked up in Iran. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Dr Moore-Gilbert said she believed Magnitsky-style sanctions that can be used to freeze the financial assets or impose travel sanctions on not just leaders, but also the “middle level officialdom” are “under-utilised in general in Australia”.

“We haven’t sought to sanction people because of their repeat involvement in the hostage taking of innocent Australian citizens,” she said.

Dr Moore-Gilbert is one of the founding members of a new organisation called Australians Wrongfully Detained Abroad, with journalist Cheng Lei and economist Sean Turnell, who were wrongfully jailed in China and Myanmar respectively.

The group will advocate for reforms in how Australia supports citizens wrongfully jailed and support for families left at home.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with the trio in Canberra last week and said it was a “privilege” to hear their insights into the “trauma” of Australians wrongfully detained overseas and the efforts of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to assist them.

“The Australian Government does everything we can to support Australians detained overseas and to advance Australia’s interests,” she said.

“We employ every strategy at our disposal towards this goal, consistent with our values and our interests.

“It’s about making the best judgement about the right approach at the right time.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Picture: AFP

Ms Wong has been strongly advocating for Australian pro-democracy writer Dr Yang Hengjun, who was handed a death-sentence commuted to live in prison by a Beijing court earlier this year.

She raised Dr Yang’s case directly with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and also outlined Australia’s human rights concerns related to Tibet, Hong Kong and the treatment of the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang.

Ms Wong recently directed DFAT to review its approach to supporting Australians detained overseas, which resulted in a number of new mechanisms being developed to manage complex cases.

This included creating a complex case committee of senior decision-makers across government to ensure all strategic and tactical levers are considered to resolve the situation and convening an external advisory group to draw on outside expertise.