Australian among 40 foreign nationals held in Iran’s jails amid escalating protests

Regime refuses to provide consular access as it does not recognise dual nationality, Dfat says

An Australian citizen is among at least 40 foreign nationals now held in Iranian jails amid pro-democracy protests across the country – and an escalating violent response by regime forces.

A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Iranian-Australian dual national had not been arrested for taking part in the anti-regime protests but confirmed that Australian officials had been refused access to assess the person’s welfare.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert says Australian government should have gone public with her case earlier

British-Australian academic also talks about impact of solitary confinement, saying it was like a ‘prolonged anxiety attack’

Kylie Moore-Gilbert believes she never would have been sentenced to 10 years jail on spying charges in Iran if the Australian government had gone public with her case earlier to pressure Tehran.

The British-Australian academic – who was released after a little more than two years in a complex prisoner swap involving four countries – said the Australian government’s strategy of “quiet diplomacy”, deliberately shielding her case from the media, while pursuing negotiations with Iran’s government, was flawed.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert thanks supporters after Iran prison release: ‘My freedom is your victory’

British-Australian academic was held on espionage charges for more than 800 days

Freed academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has paid tribute to her family, friends and colleagues who campaigned for her release while she was held in Iranian prisons for more than two years.

After 804 days in prison on espionage charges widely dismissed as baseless, Moore-Gilbert was released last week in a complex and dramatic prisoner swap for three convicted Iranian bombers in prison in Thailand.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert faces long road back to normality, says fellow former hostage

Ana Diamond, who was held for more than six months, says the Australian academic was subject to a ‘sophisticated’ hostage-taking operation

Back on Australian soil, and safe in the enforced quiet of Covid quarantine, Kylie Moore-Gilbert faces a long road to recovery, according to another victim of Iran’s practice of seizing foreign nationals as hostages.

Ana Diamond was just 19 when she was seized by the country’s Revolutionary Guards in 2016, held for 200 days in solitary confinement and forced to endure a mock execution over baseless allegations she was a foreign spy.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert released from Iran jail in prisoner exchange

British-Australian academic has been imprisoned in Iran since 2018

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the Australian-British academic detained by Iran on espionage charges, has been released in a prisoner exchange for three Iranians.

In what will be seen as a victory for Iranian state hostage-taking by some and a humanitarian move by others, Moore-Gilbert was released on Wednesday morning. The move also raises hopes for the fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, dual UK-Iranian nationals who have been held since 2016 and 2017 respectively.

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Iran moves detained academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert back to Tehran prison

Moore-Gilbert, who has Australian and British citizenship, had been held in Qarchak, widely regarded as the worst female prison in Iran

The detained British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been moved back to Tehran’s Evin prison, sources with knowledge of her case have confirmed to the Guardian.

Moore-Gilbert is understood to be back in the secretive ward 2A of Tehran’s largest prison, where she had spent much of the past two years under the control of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s supporters come out in solidarity on second anniversary of Iran detention

Friends stage ‘Run for Kylie’ events for the Australian academic jailed on spying charges, as her family say they remain strong and hopeful

The family of the detained academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who faces 10 years in jail in Iran on espionage charges – have said they “remain strong and are far from giving up hope”, as hundreds of her friends marked the second anniversary of her detention on Sunday.

Moore-Gilbert, a dual UK and Australian citizen, was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as she attempted to fly out of the country following an academic conference at which she had spoken.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s every step being followed inside prison in Iran

Sources say authorities make two prisoners follow the British Australian academic everywhere in the Covid-ravaged Qarchak jail

Kylie Moore-Gilbert has enough money to buy food and water inside Iran’s notorious Qarchak prison, but is closely surveilled everywhere she goes, sources inside the jail say.

Fellow prisoners report that the British Australian academic appears to have so far escaped infection in the wave of Covid-19 sweeping through the prison, but that her communications with the outside world are strictly proscribed, according to Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center (ABC) for Human Rights in Iran.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert granted meeting with Australian ambassador to Iran

Exclusive: British-Australian academic will meet diplomat for first time since sudden move to a new notorious prison

The imprisoned British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert is set to be granted a meeting with Australia’s ambassador to Iran as soon as Sunday.

Following reports in the Guardian that Dr Moore-Gilbert was seriously unwell in Qarchak prison and had been removed from quarantine because she was attempting to write to the ambassador for help, the state-run Mizan news agency reported she was in “perfect health”.

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