Kylie Moore-Gilbert moved from Qarchak prison in Iran to mystery location

Australian government seeks briefing from Iran after Aussie academic reportedly moved from notorious desert prison.

Melbourne academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been accused of spying.

The Australian government is seeking a briefing from Iranian authorities after a report that detained Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been moved to a secret location.

The Iranian Association of Human Rights Activists said Dr Moore-Gilbert, who is serving a ten year sentence for espionage, was moved on Saturday from Qarchak prison to an undisclosed location.

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.

“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’.”

They 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.

Moore-Gilbert’s departure came 11 days after she was shifted, along with 15 other political prisoners, to Ward Eight in the Qarchak prison, formerly known as the Mothers’ Ward.

The prison has been dealing with outbreaks of coronavirus among the inmates and prison staff and officials closed the corridors, forcing some prisoners to sleep on the floor of overcrowded cells.

Activists reported that Dr Moore-Gilbert was in a cell with 10 other “general’’ prisoners in the Mothers’ Ward before she was moved.

The health condition of Dr Moore-Gilbert is unknown.

Iran’s Qarchak prison.

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 arrested at Tehran airport two years ago as she was preparing to return to Melbourne after a study tour of Iran. She was sentenced to ten years jail for spying, following a secret trial in 2018.

She has denied all charges against her.

In August this year she was transferred from Evin Prison in Tehran to Qarchak as a form of punishment.

At the time Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran told The Australian it was important to speak out about Dr Moore-Gilbert because she was sent to Qarchak as a punishment “and if there is enough noise about her they will take her back to Evin, which is a lot cleaner prison’’.

Australia’s ambassador in Iran Lyndall Sachs has been seeking regular access to Dr Moore-Gilbert providing her with access to food, medical treatment and books.

Ana Diamond, a 26 year old British-Finnish-Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Guards in 2016 but who eventually had her sentenced commuted, said she hoped the move was good news for Dr Moore-Gilbert.