How Kylie Moore-Gilbert survived 804 days in Iran's worst prison | 60 Minutes Australia

accused and then dubiously convicted of spying What Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore Gilbert endured locked up in brutal Iranian

prison

s for more than two years would have broken most people, it wasn't just the torment of being in solitary confinement during the For most of that time, she also endured relentless interrogations and other extreme psychological torture, but

worst

of all, the likely reason she stayed in

prison

for so long is strange. He says one of her captors fell in love with her, an attraction that plunged Kylie into an inescapably dangerous love triangle that I fought through. I think it really happened to me.

Sometimes I feel like it was a particularly vivid bad dream I had one night that I keep replaying over and over in my head, but it's crazy, I honestly can't believe it happened to me, Kylie. Moore Gilbert wants to shout it from the top. She's not a spy, but there was no way she was going to convince Iran's ruthless revolutionary guard, who for more than two years kept the soft-spoken academic as their prized prisoner. Because I? Why did this happen? For me, what have I done that I deserve this? She really is very surreal locked in solitary confinement for months.

What Kylie endured was horrible every day, it was just torment and suffering unbearable torture made worse by the strange lust of one of her captors I think she wanted some kind of romantic relationship with me and as you will see, the untold story of Kylie Moore Gilbert is so full of twists that this scary man within the revolutionary guard is throwing you a birthday party, yes, bordering on unbelievable, oh my god. She is his wife, I know, but his battle with the treacherous intelligence chief who controlled his freedom was very real, it almost broke me honestly and culminated in a devastating act of revenge, so you remain imprisoned for six or seven more months.

Yes, when you should. they have been released yes, because you hurt the man's ego yes, incredible, I know it was August 2018 when

kylie

moore

gilbert

was invited to an academic seminar in Iran, it was her first trip to the country and she was excited, but the expert in Islamic studies The University of Melbourne also knew it had to be careful. I didn't really think she was doing anything particularly sensitive. I had a great time. You know, I saw some of the great cities in Iran and met so many amazing people at the end of the year. her stay, even though Kylie had somehow gone from visitor to enemy of the state, what was it that put you on that radar?

Not sure 100. I interviewed a Bahraini guy who had some kind of connection to the Revolutionary Guards that I didn't know about and either he was arrested by them and they found messages from me on his phone to arrange a meeting for our interview or he was working with them since the beginning and nicknamed me, but I will never know, I will never be safe in Tehran. airport as she was preparing to board her plane home she was surprised to be detained by a group of men what was going through your mind at that moment confusion they told me that they had a warrant for my arrest and they were not wearing uniforms it was just a few people dressed in civilians which I had no idea about at the time, but they were soldiers of Iran's feared revolutionary guard and this was the beginning of what became 804

days

of hell.

I know who the revolutionary guards are. They're a scary organization with you know, almost absolute power to do whatever they want. From the first night they believed he was involved in espionage. They kept accusing me of lying. They kept accusing me of having a cover story and asking the same questions over and over again in different ways. to discover me, a lot of mind games, a lot of lies, they accuse you of being an Israeli spy, an Australian spy, an MI6 agent, even a Bahraini spy, yes, I think anyone with half a brain would know that that is complete nonsense, but they are not in the business of justice or truth, they are in the business of extortion, blackmail and hostage diplomacy.

They're not going to let me go. Her first interrogation lasted eight

days

and by the end it was clear that Kylie would not be returning home. her to Melbourne any time soon, instead, they blindfolded her and took her to her new home, the famous Evan prison in Iran. They took me and put me in a very, very small cell. I thought it was literally a room to change clothes. I didn't do it for a million years. I actually expected him to put this little windowless box with lights on 24/7, no furniture, absolutely nothing, complete sensory deprivation, it was hell, your brain is your

worst

enemy to survive in there.

I learned after a few weeks the only way to keep you. The mentally sane thing for me was to shut down and freeze every part of my personality because if you're alert and active you go crazy, so for 23 hours a day you were trapped in an eight foot by eight foot box, yeah. On the days that they didn't interrogate me 23 hours a day in that box, during the hour that I wasn't in the box they would take me for half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon to a small balcony and I would walk back and forth outside and then he would go back to the box, how long were you there?

I was in that cell for a month and then in a variety of other cells, some better, some worse for 23 months. Kylie's captors used every trick they wanted to lure her then-husband Ruslan Hodarov and an Israeli citizen to Iran and when that didn't work incredibly, they tried to recruit her as one of her own agents. What was her proposal for her to agree to work for them abroad? as a spy in exchange for my freedom that I use my status as an academic to go to countries like Israel like the UK and gather information for them and after weeks of psychological torture of solitary confinement, did you ever consider that it had occurred to you?

It crossed your mind to accept her offer. I thought: Could I run away? Could I escape from them? In fact, I asked them. I told them: Why do you trust me? If you let me leave the country to go spy on you somewhere, what does that do to you? I think I'm not going to run away and they said we have agents in Australia, we have agents in many countries in the world, if you do that we will kill you, the daily psychological torture was taking its toll, but it was nothing. Compared to the strange turn Kylie's life was about to take, she knew him by several names, but her main name was Kazizadeh.

He was the head of my case and I guess the head of the interrogators. The crippling isolation of solitary confinement in a brutal Iranian prison. It was almost too much for

kylie

moore

gilbert

, you know, I learned that I would rather be without food than without human interaction, but then, with a little luck, she made a chance discovery when I was outside on my exercise time, picking up a rock and scraping some English words on the wall, I think I wrote my name on the wall and that I was from Australia and one day someone responded wow in English and wrote stay strong and that really made my day.

I thought, Oh my God, how? Does anyone even know who I am or that I'm here or do you know what this other prisoner is? A few days later he found another message that solved the mystery. They left me a plastic bag with dried fruits and nuts hidden inside a plant pot and they left me a small note written on toilet paper in that bag and they told me their hoda names and that they were my friends and that I am not alone and that it meant a lot to me and over a period of several weeks we established a channel of communication nilofor bayani is an environmental scientist ahmed a lawyer and women's rights activist both were serving long prison sentences on trumped-up charges brought by the Iranian revolutionary guard but they were Kylie's lifesavers I was able to steal a pen and I wrote notes to them and they wrote notes to me and when I moved my cells they moved me to the cell next to theirs and then we established a way of communicating with each other through the air conditioning vents late at night, it was the beginning. of months of clandestine communications between the three women carried out right under the noses of the prison guards was incredibly dangerous but vital to their sanity you are becoming a very calculated schemer I was yes, you and your fellow prisoners is true what they say about going to prison you learn to be a criminal in prison so I learned to plan and you know, break the rules by being there while Kylie's friendship with Nulofar and Hoda was a blessing, a much more sinister relationship too It was developing, it's a story, Kylie.

She had never told until now how she formed a truly strange bond with the revolutionary guard who controlled every minute of her time in prison. She knew him by several names, but the main name was Khazizadeh. He was the head of my case and I guess the head of the Interrogators at first there was a lot of animosity between us during the first year of my incarceration. Initially he wanted to present himself as the good cop, but that very quickly degenerated into him being the downright bad cop, punishing me by placing informants and spies in my space to make my life hell by forbidding me from family phone calls and consular visits.

Kazi Zadeh was a volatile and terrifying man. , but as her ordeal dragged on, Kylie's jailer became her suitor and developed a romantic interest in me, but it was a very perverse kind of control. romantic interest was a very emotionally abusive type of romantic interest where he had complete and utter control over every facet of my life. He came regularly every week several times and we would have long chats and talk about all kinds of things. He was giving me information, so I saw it as a beneficial relationship to nurture and foster because he was getting something from it.

Kylie was desperate to know what was happening to secure his release, but in Australia her fate remained a secret for almost a year. Only close family friends and Australian government officials knew where she was being held and all were sworn to silence as a policy of quiet diplomacy struggled to advance; That is a very painful topic for me. My family believed they were doing the right thing and had my best interests in mind. I think the government, on the other hand, does not want negative media attention, but in my case I understood that media attention would allow me to improve my prison conditions and put pressure on the Iranians and Australians. making a significant effort to secure my release is really complicated, honestly, I don't want to judge anyone, but when I was there and in prison, that's what I wanted and it was very difficult for me.

I was not being listened to and my wishes were not respected with little information and nothing to lose Kylie began to take greater risks writing letters that were smuggled to the outside world I am completely alone in Iran I feel abandoned and forgotten Letters that have incredibly found their way back to her in Australia. It's quite extraordinary to look at this Kylie. They are like pieces of your story right in front of us. Yeah, honestly, I'm shocked that she even has this in my hands. I didn't even know it. If she got out of prison, much less returned to me on the other side of the world in defiance of Kazizadeh and her other jailers, Kylie would write painstakingly on scraps of paper and tissues while she hid from the cameras monitoring the cell. her.

She knew there were consequences like getting beaten up, but she was willing to take the risk and I think it was worth it. This is the letter I leaked to Prime Minister Morrison begging him to help get me out of prison because you know, please. I beg you to do whatever it takes to get me out, as my physical and mental health continues to deteriorate with each additional day I remain incarcerated under these conditions. As the months passed, Kylie became even more distressed and went on multiple hunger strikes to improve her conditions. but what he didn't know was that in

australia

the lack of progress in his case was causing further frustration, friends and colleagues like pamela farada and jessie moritz were worried that quiet diplomacy wasn't working so how hard is it to keep silence about everything that happens?

What we want to do is talk very difficult, incredibly difficult, I felt so desperate, I felt so helpless, there was nothing I could do to help her, you know, as the months went by and Kylie didn't come home, we thought we had to do. More than remaining silent that is not enough and there was another problem: the discovery of a relationship between Kylie's then husband, Ruslan, and one of his close colleagues at the University of Melbourne, we discovered that there had been a fair between the supervisor of PhD from Kylie and her husband. and those had been two of the people who had been telling us to shut up and that to us meant we had to go public.

The Free Kylie campaign was launched shortly after, but it was a huge gamble that risked making Kylie Moore's life even worse. gilbert kylie moore gilbert spent more than two years in Iran as a prisoner of the powerful revolutionary guard, but she would have returned home much soonerif it hadn't been for the senior officer in charge of her case, casizade, with whom she had fallen in love. With his captive, a delicate situation that Kylie at first tried to use to her advantage, I understood that I could take advantage of those feelings to benefit from my prison conditions and obtain information from him about my situation, about diplomatic negotiations, about what the guards revolutionaries wanted in return. to me, about how close we were to an agreement, you saw this new development as an opportunity, yes, because I got a lot of things from him, he would buy me pizza, he organized a birthday party for me, a birthday cake, you know, like if he gave me clothes.

He organized additional shopping lists for me. You know, he really helped me endure the conditions in that place. At certain times, this fearsome man within the revolutionary guard who occupies his high position is celebrating your birthday. party yes, I know, it sounds strange, it's absurd, yes, you bought me a huge two-tier chocolate cake with my name on it and frosting in Farsi, I mean, the level is ridiculous, the absurdity of this situation, but it's also dangerous, you found it. Being in a very precarious position was very dangerous he was a very very dangerous man and it was a danger that grew when Kylie was shocked to realize that Casey Zardes' wife was another of his prison guards, she did everything she could. was able to make my life. impossible to live she harassed me really made it difficult she hit me she was the prison guard who hit me when the penny dropped she was his wife about two months later when he started flirting with me she had had a conversation with her in the exercise area where he had revealed some things and was behaving strangely.

One night I sat in bed, you know, with the blanket over my head and I had this moment where I realized that, oh my God, she's his wife, what? You know I thought that was too crazy like him transferring his own wife to spy on someone he's interested in? That's crazy, not only crazy but, as Kylie was about to find out, she was also heartbreaking after almost two years in prison. I was told that a diplomatic agreement was imminent. She was about to be forgiven, but then she made a terrible miscalculation. I understood that in a few days she might leave me.

I felt like I had to warn him about her husband. I guess she had to tell him. I wanted her to know that she wasn't coming from me. I wanted her to know that she had no power or control over this and that it was ultimately a huge misstep. That decision was completely counterproductive. Yes, he canceled the diplomatic agreement furious at having been rejected. kazizadeh ordered kylie to be immediately transferred to the most dangerous prison in Iran as punishment when I finally made it clear to him that I am not interested in him. They sent me to the prison of clarity.

He thought she would suffer there. He thought she would be in danger. being surrounded by gangs, criminals and murderers there, ultimately, I mean this deal was off, but it was almost said that he could keep you, yes, that he could keep you there exactly so that he could maintain his relationship with you, his strange unrequited relationship Yes with you. that's what I think happened and I just couldn't believe he had the power to do that, how much longer were you in prison after that deal fell through for six and seven months, so you stay incarcerated for six or seven months more, yes, when you should have done it? been released yes, because you hurt a man's ego yes, incredible, I know after more than 800 days in an Iranian prison Australian academic kylie moore guilford finally after a few more months of hell on November 25, 2020, the government Australian negotiated a deal that saw Kylie Moore Gilbert walk free at the same time three revolutionary guards convicted of terrorism in Thailand were freed from prison and returned to Iran.

Kylie's ordeal ended after 804 days. You finally got out of prison. It must have been overwhelming, it was totally crazy like she couldn't. figure out what was going on that she was actually out of prison that she wasn't going back there because of those who supported her and who fought to get her out Kylie is eternally grateful at the time she had no idea that anyone cared or that she was being told I told her that no one cared and yes, it has been amazing to come home and know that people actually did care and that I have amazing friends like these two, but Kylie coming home was bittersweet.

She found out that her marriage was over. Her husband, Ruslan, had moved on with her close colleague. do you understand why someone would do that he went through a really tough time more than you no I don't know his side of the story yet now you don't know you don't want to know not particularly why not because I'm over it I'm better off this way how do you reflect on freedom today? God, freedom is so precious that you know that only when it is taken away do you truly understand its value and what it means and Kylie Moore Gilbert

survived

an astonishing 804 days of hell in Iran that she came out intact is a mark of her incredible courage and resistance the prisoner who never lost hope for freedom grateful for her second chance at life I mean I don't know how you found the strength to get through that, where did that come from?

There were many factors that helped me survive. One of them is simply that you have no choice, you have to survive. What is the alternative? Nothing but your own brain to keep you company. Your own brain deliberately becomes your worst enemy. So yeah, oh, it's all deliberate. All you are there to break you. Do you think you broke? Do you think they broke you? They didn't break me and I'm proud of myself for that. Quite a remarkable woman, Kylie. Thank you. Hello. I'm Sarah Arbo, thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia. Subscribe to our channel now to receive new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss our bonus minute segments and full 60 minute episodes on ninenow.com.eiu and the nine. now app