Australian-British academic jailed in Iran attempted suicide ‘on multiple occasions’

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British academic jailed in Iran for espionage, has attempted suicide on multiple occasions in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, according to the spouse of a prominent imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer.

“Kylie Moor-Gilbert … has attempted suicide three times, according to news coming out of Evin prison,” Reza Khandan wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Khandan is the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, an award-winning Iranian human rights lawyer who was last year sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes on several charges.

“Being kept in solitary confinement for so long had become so intolerable that Moor-Gilbert attempted suicide on several occasions,” Khandan wrote.

Authorities refuse to release or even transfer Moore-Gilbert to a public ward with other prisoners, he said.

The Cambridge University educated academic is held in “horrific and unbearable conditions” and is “not allowed to communicate with other prisoners,” wrote Khandan.

Moore-Gilbert is not allowed any money to shop from the prison’s store like other prisoners, he said, adding that authorities do not allow her to send out any complaint letters.

The academic is “furious” at the Australian authorities for “ignoring her intolerable situation in prison,” Khandan wrote.

Moore-Gilbert is serving a 10-year sentence on espionage charges, which she rejects. The Iranian authorities confirmed her arrest last September.