The husband of a prominent Iranian lawyer in prison says the physical and mental condition of a British-Australian academic, Kylie Moore Gilbert, is not good and she “has attempted suicide three times so far" behind bars in the Islamic Republic.
Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on his Facebook page that based on news he has received from Tehran's notorious Evin prison, Moore has been in solitary confinement for a long time and is not allowed to communicate with other prisoners or even shop at the prison store.
"News received from Evin prison says that Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the Australian citizen, who is staying in the security ward of Evin prison, has so far attempted to kill herself three times", Reza Khandan reported on his Facebook page.
Intelligence agents have stopped Ms. Moore's complaints from reaching outside the security zone of the prison, Khandan has disclosed, reiterating, "The long stay in the security detention center and the conditions of solitary confinement have become so unbearable that she has had several suicide attempts."
Earlier, in February, some of her letters had reached the British media, in which she expressed her dissatisfaction with her condition, lack of money, and the lack of attention by the Australian government to her plight.
She also divulged in her letters that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' (IRGC) intelligence officers had offered her to spy for them in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Kylie Moore Gilbert, a professor of Islamic studies at Melbourne University in Australia, was arrested in Iran in the fall of 2018 and sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of espionage. The university professor was returning to his home country of Australia when she was arrested at Tehran's international airport.
Ms. Moore's case, like that of many other foreign or dual nationals jailed in the Shi'ite clergy-dominated Iran, has been tied to security affairs and kept confidential, therefore its details are unclear.
Human rights activist, Reza Khandan is the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a renowned human rights lawyer who was sentenced to 38 years and kept in Evin prison, on a series of ambiguous security charges, which she strongly denies.
Sotoudeh is also known as the spearhead of a move to a gradual ban of the death penalty in Iran and canceling compulsory hijab in the country.
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