‘Discreet’ bid to get Australian academic out of Tehran jail

PM stresses importance of being ‘discreet’ in attempting to free Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

Melbourne academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert who is being held in an Iranian jail.

Scott Morrison has stressed the importance of being “discreet” in attempting to secure the freedom of Melbourne academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, after she released a letter begging the Prime Minister to negotiate her release from an Iranian jail.

The Prime Minister said he was concerned for Dr Moore-Gilbert’s welfare after she lost an appeal against her 10-year sentence for allegedly spying.

But he declared Dr Moore-Gilbert was aware of the support she was receiving from the government, despite releasing personal letters of her plea to Mr Morrison. “We’ve been working discreetly and conscientiously on her case now for some time,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr Morrison said Foreign Minister Marise Payne and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs have had “some great success” in getting Australians released from foreign prisons. “But the key to getting that success is the determined way in which they pursue this, the ­patient way in which they pursue it, and also the very discreet way in which they pursue this,” he said on Monday.

“That’s why I can’t comment too much on the nature of the ­efforts that Australia is making. But I can assure you, and I know that Kylie also knows the extent that the Australian government is going to do everything that we can do to bring her home.”

The University of Melbourne Middle East expert spent her ­second Christmas behind bars in solitary ­confinement in a 3m by 2m cell in the Evin Prison. She remains in the Tehran jail where Iran’s Revolutionary Guard keeps its political prisoners.

She claims she was in Iran as part of a program on Islam for foreign academics, where she conducted research interviews. An academic in the program and an interview subject flagged her as “suspicious” to Iranian authorities.

News Corp papers reported an open letter from Dr Moore-Gilbert to Mr Morrison sent in June in which she begged him to “act faster to bring this terrible trauma that myself and my family must live through day after day to a resolution”.

“Please I beg of you to do whatever it takes to get me out,” she reportedly wrote.

In another letter sent this month, Dr Moore-Gilbert wrote that the “intolerable conditions” of her detention had not ­improved. “I have taken five hunger strikes as my only means to raise my voice but to no avail,” she reportedly wrote.

“I beg of you Prime Minister to take immediate action as my physical and mental health continues to deteriorate with every additional day that I remain ­imprisoned in these conditions.”

Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said her imprisonment was a “real concern”.

“It’s not clear what she’s been accused of,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Australia, I’m sure, is making a strong representation. DFAT do a very good job.”