Answers sought on jailed Aussie lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert
The federal government is urgently seeking information from Iran on the location of jailed Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
The federal government is urgently seeking information from Iranian authorities on the location of jailed Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert after reports she had been taken to a secret location.
The Iranian Association of Human Rights Activists said Dr Moore-Gilbert, who is serving a 10-year sentence for espionage which the Australian government rejects, was moved on Saturday from the notorious Qarchak prison.
Her belongings were also reportedly moved, but there was no word on where she was taken.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said Australia’s ambassador to Iran recently met with the Melbourne University academic, referring to a consular visit at the Qarchak facility. But the government was unclear on her current location, Senator Payne said.
“The reports that we have seen are ones which we are seeking further information on,” Senator Payne said.
Dr Moore-Gilbert’s friends and family, who have questioned the government’s low-key approach to lobbying on the academic’s behalf, expressed concern at her reported relocation.
“Thirty-six hours after reports emerged that Kylie was transferred from Qarchak prison to an unknown location, Foreign Minister Marise Payne has acknowledged that the Australian government is ‘seeking further information’,” the FreeKylieMG group said. “In short, if the reports are true, then an Australian citizen has gone missing within the Iranian prison system, despite the careful watch of ‘quiet diplomacy’.”
It urged the government to call in the Iranian ambassador “to express in the strongest terms Australia’s displeasure at the treatment of this innocent woman”. “We also urge the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to immediately locate Kylie and check on her welfare, to provide greater transparency on her situation and condition, and to urgently reassess their plan for bringing her home,” the group said.
Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson said it was unclear whether Dr Moore-Gilbert’s apparent move was good or bad news. “One hopes that the move from that prison is good news but we don’t know where she has been moved to and we don’t know why,” Ms Pearson said. “We know from her letters that she has suffered and endured quite a lot in prison. We know that the conditions with COVID are very bad in Iran.”
Dr Moore-Gilbert was stopped from returning to Melbourne, where she is a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne, after attending a conference in Qom in Iran in August 2018.
The country’s Revolutionary Guard alleged that a person she interviewed for a research project was suspicious and refused to let her leave Iran.
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