CHRI:

Since being jailed in the severely restrictive Ward-2A of Iran’s Evin Prison, British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has struggled to obtain proper food and medication, and has been denied contact with the outside world including her family, she wrote in a series of letters obtained by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

Echoing similar statements by other prisoners held there who hold foreign citizenship, Moore-Gilbert noted that the intelligence organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which controls Ward 2-A, had pressured her to become a spy, an offer she firmly rejected in one of her 10 letters published in full here for the first time by CHRI after excerpts were printed by the Guardian and the Times of London.

“Moore-Gilbert’s letters provide a glimpse into the lives of prisoners isolated in the Revolutionary Guards’ Ward 2A, where intelligence agents are free to subject prisoners to the most unlawful and inhumane conditions with impunity,” said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.

“Iran’s State Prisons’ Organization and the judiciary to which it reports are responsible for the health and well-being of all prisoners in the country,” he added. “In Moore-Gilbert’s case, this requires immediately ending her prolonged isolation and transferring her to Evin Prison’s Women’s Ward, and allowing her access to proper food, medicine, counsel, family contact and consular access.”

The following letters were written between July-December 2019 by Moore-Gilbert and translated into English by an intermediary before being sent to CHRI by a vetted source who requested anonymity for security reasons. They have been published below in unedited form.

July 5, 2019
“in the name of God”
Dear Mr. Ghaderi: First of all, I’m very grateful that you met with us last week, and thanks for your help in alleviating our concerns. If my behavior gave you or the staff of ward “2-A” any trouble, I apologize. I’m taking psychiatric medications, but these 10 months that I have spent here have gravely damaged my mental health. I am still denied phone calls and visitations, and I am afraid that my mental and emotional state may further deteriorate, if I remain in this extremely restrictive detention ward “2-A”. Mr. Ghaderi, please, help me get transferred to the normal ward, and please schedule the remaining hearings for my trial as soon as possible. Moreover, I would be very grateful if you followed-up with the issue of retrieving all my English language books from my “case expert”, and to lift the ban on phone calls and visits. Once again I thank you for your kind help. Regards, the innocent professor of Melbourne University.

June 20, 2019
Dear Mr. Hosseini, [illegible] …I now feel much better than when I was alone. I want ask you for your kind help again (sorry!). I went to my trial two and half weeks ago, and I followed your advice of asking the judge to allow IRGC to give me back my books and my right to phone calls. Two weeks ago, I had a visit from my ambassador and most of my English books that were brought to me were confiscated by IRGC. This is in addition to the books that my ambassador had brought for me in a visit 4 months ago, which are still held by my “case expert” and not given to me. All the titles and author names of the books were translated by the Embassy and all the books were bought in Iran- IRGC really has no excuse. My “case expert” has taken the books hostage in order to put psychological pressure on me. These books belong to the embassy and the judge has explicitly ordered that they should be given to me (the same goes for Quran in english, which DOES exist inside “A-2” ward- I know). Please help me retrieve these books from IRGC, and please don’t listen to the excuses and lies of my “case expert”. In addition, in the past 3 months I have only had one 4-minute phone call with my family. The judge has allowed me phone calls as well, but I was still denied phone calls. I want to write an official complaint letter to the Prosecutor Mr. Vaziri, could you please provide me with the correct complaint form? Many thanks for your time and help (as always!)

Go to link