Foreign ex-prisoner in Iran to Alessia Piperno's family: 'Resist, she will be released'

"For Alessia it is a horrible time, but it will end. Anyone who has the opportunity to speak to Alessia should tell her not to surrender to the extortion of a false confession. Whatever the verdict of the Iranian court is, it must be remembered that in reality their purpose is to establish a its price in the negotiations with Italy. That is why I tell Alessia's family to be strong and have hope. Tehran has arrested her because now she hopes to have something in return, which means that they are willing to let her go. "

This is the message of

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested in her early thirties in September 2018 at Tehran airport, after a two-week visit to Iran where she attended a conference: she worked as a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in Australia and was invited at the conference from an Iranian university.

The Revolutionary Guards arrested her, locked her in a solitary cell in Evin Prison and eventually sentenced to ten years for 'espionage'.

"I was released after 2 years and 3 months in November 2020 following a prisoner exchange agreement, organized by the Australian government. I then wrote a book on my ordeal in Iran, 'The Uncaged Sky'".

and they almost always have no family members in Iran who can provide financial support to obtain food and basic necessities inside the prison.

Then there is the linguistic difficulty: almost no one speaks English and no prison guard would know, in Alessia's case, Italian.

Communicating one's basic needs to the prison authorities, or defending oneself, is therefore almost impossible ".

Finally, the former Evin prison inmate reiterated that "it is absolutely essential to keep the media attention high on the case of Alessia, particularly within Italy. On the one hand, the Italian government pushes on negotiations with Iran. for her release, on the other hand, her family members conduct a campaign for her, so that her case is not soon forgotten ".