‘Rise up': Strike on notorious prison carried message for Iranians, released Australian says
An Australian academic who spent more than two years as a political prisoner in Iran says the Israeli missile strike on the notorious Evin Prison where she was held was a symbolic blow against Iran's repressive regime, intended to send a message to Iranians about the weakness of their rulers.
Iranian state television shared black-and-white surveillance footage of the overnight strike at the prison, which is known for holding dual nationals and Westerners who are often used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
'It was very affecting for me to see the footage of the strike on gates which I have passed through too many times to remember,' Kylie Moore-Gilbert told this masthead.
'In my view this was a symbolic strike designed to send a message to the Iranian people about the regime's weakness. Evin Prison is a hugely potent symbol of the regime's repressive apparatus and destroying the prison gates might have been a not-so-subtle nudge for the people to rise up and reclaim their freedom.'
Now a specialist in Middle Eastern political science at Macquarie University, Moore-Gilbert was arrested after attending a conference in Qom in 2018 and imprisoned by the regime in an act of hostage diplomacy. She was held in solitary confinement and sentenced to 10 years in jail on trumped-up charges of espionage but returned to Australia as part of a prisoner swap in November 2020.
'From what I can discern no prison blocks or residential wards were targeted, just the gates and some judicial and administrative buildings,' she said of the overnight strike.
'I am very worried about the prisoners inside, particularly as word has begun to emerge of terrifying scenes, with crazy behaviour from guards, [of] prisoners refused medical treatment and families gathering in desperation outside.'
After the strike social media posts contained descriptions of people being injured as guards raced to safety and of using force to strengthen security rather than aid injured inmates.
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