Free Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert

Free Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert

Started
29 January 2020
Confirmed victory
This petition made change with 253,111 supporters!

Why this petition matters

Started by Phil Swaine

On 24th August 2018 dual British-Australian national Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert boarded a flight from her home in Melbourne, Australia bound for Iran and the city of Qom to participate in a university programme on Islam for foreign academics.

Dr Moore-Gilbert is a lecturer and researcher in Middle East Politics at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute. 

Three weeks after her arrival, on or around 14th September 2018, as she was about to board her flight home she was arrested by the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guard and thrown into Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.

Imprisoned and isolated from contact with the outside world for the next nine months - much of it spent in solitary confinement in a cell just 2m x 3m with no bed, no window and the lights turned on 24 hours every day-  she was eventually charged and convicted, without any real evidence, on spurious charges of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

As part of Iran's pattern of holding foreign nationals hostage for political or financial gain, Dr Moore-Gilbert has been held captive by a brutal paramilitary organisation that acts above the law and is answerable to no-one but Iran's supreme leader.

Since her unjust conviction she has continued to suffer in isolation, denied contact with her family, permitted very few visits from consular officials and deprived of her most basic rights. She has no immediate prospect of being released into the general prison population, even though this is dictated by Iranian law once a conviction (however unjust) is secured.

A recent appeal against her sentence failed after her captors attempted to coerce her into spying for Iran.

Meanwhile her mental and physical health continues to deteriorate with every day that passes. Unable to eat most of the prison food due to allergies, deprived of the funds to allow her a suitable diet, personal items and medication she suffers intolerable conditions, simply for doing her job. 

The Government of Australia has to date failed to secure her release or ensure that even her most basic human rights are catered for. The British Government has simply left it to their Australian counterparts to sort out.

We ask that the Governments of Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson work together to urgently relieve the ongoing cruelty and hardship suffered by Dr Moore-Gilbert and secure her speedy release. At the very least we ask that they urgently work to ensure that Dr Moore-Gilbert is granted her full legal rights and is transferred immediately from isolation and solitary confinement.

Her health and well-being depend on you.

Thank you

Confirmed victory

This petition made change with 253,111 supporters!

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