Iran’s Foreign Minister eschewed any discussion about the prison conditions of jailed Melbourne academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert during a meeting with Marise Payne, despite ongoing issues around her treatment in the country’s most notorious jail, according to an Iranian official.
Mohammad Javad Zarif met his Australian counterpart, Senator Payne, in India earlier this month and discussed the case of Dr Moore-Gilbert, who has been held by Iran since September 2018 on espionage charges.
A series of letters written by the University of Melbourne academic have been smuggled out of the notorious Evin prison, in which she detailed her suffering, rejected the accusations that she was a spy and her struggle to get phone call and visitation rights.
But Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday said her treatment was not discussed during the meeting, following a report in the Washington Post last week that suggested Mr Zarif said the harsh treatment of the Australian academic was a result of her being “such a difficult prisoner”.
“Any allegation or claim that FM (foreign minister Zarif) discussed the treatment, or attitude, of Ms Moore-Gilbert (in prison in Iran) with his Australian counterpart @MarisePayne is categorically false,” Iran foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Twitter.
In one of 10 recently released letters, Dr Moore-Gilbert wrote to a “Mr Ghaderi” in July and said her imprisonment “in this extremely restrictive detention ward” would see a deterioration in her already “gravely damaged” mental health.
The most recently dated letter, written on December 2, said she remained inside the same ward, and earlier letters spoke of Dr Moore-Gilbert being shown two different sentences — one of 13 months’ imprisonment and the other of 10 years — and of an effort to recruit her as a spy in exchange for her freedom.
Read the article by Mark Schliebs in The Australian.