Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert held in Iran has ‘become suicidal’

London: The husband of a prisoner in Iran’s notorious Evin jail has claimed that Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a British-Australian academic who is also detained there, has attempted suicide several times.

In a post on Facebook, Reza Khandan wrote: “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.”

“The long stay in the security detention centre and the conditions of solitary confinement have become so unbearable that she has had several suicide attempts.”

Khandan is the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer who was sentenced to 38 years in Evin prison and 148 lashes last year on various security charges, which she strongly denies.

The London Telegraph was not immediately able to verify the claim due to the opaque nature of the Iranian prison system.

But relatives of other detainees in Evin prison said that Moore-Gilbert’s long period in solitary confinement was likely to have severely affected her wellbeing.

“I can’t confirm the accuracy of the news, but Kylie has been held in solitary confinement under IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) control for approaching two years,” said Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of British-Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Read the article James Rothwell in The Sydney Morning Herald.