Immediate & Unconditional Release of Omid Kokabee

URGENT UPDATE May 14, 2012

Scientist Omid Kokabi Is Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Refusing To Cooperate With IRGC

By Persianbanoo

After fifteen months in temporary detention, University of Texas post-doctoral student in nuclear physics, Omid Kokabi was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of cooperation with an enemy state, by Judge Salavati in a show trial labeled “Trial of those accused of cooperation with Mossad in Israel”.

On Sunday May 13, trial was held for 15 defendants charged with espionage in the court room of Judge Salavati. This trial was reported and covered in the pro government media, including Seda va Sima (TV) as the trial of Israeli spies.

Eight of these defendants were imprisoned for months prior to this trial. In the courtroom, some of the defendants accepted their charges and even thanked the Intelligence Ministry for arresting them. But Omid Kokabi refused to say anything in court, therefore was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

After receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Sharif University in Tehran, Omid Kokabi went to Europe and the United States for further education where he obtained a post-doctoral degree in nuclear physics from University of Texas in the U.S.

In recent years, he had been approached a number of times by Iran’s nuclear program and by universities affiliated with IRGC to cooperate and work with them but he had always refused their offer.

During his incarceration and interrogations they tried to force him to cooperate and work with them by putting pressure on him and his family but Kokabi refused and said it would always be an honor to serve his country through academic activities but has no interest in working on military projects.

During his fifteen months of incarceration, many domestic and foreign scientific organizations and scientists voiced their support for this 30 year old scientist and had asked for his release from prison. Included in this group were a number of Nobel Physics Prize winners who wrote a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei asking for the release of Kokabi. Also among them were international science Olympiads and winners of dozens of scientific societies including the Society of the IEEE.

Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran also voiced concern about Omid Kokabi’s situation in his report.

Source: Kalameh

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UPDATE February 8 , 2012

A year in jail without trial for Iranian student accused of spying
03 Feb 2012

Omid Kokabee, a physics student accused of spying by Iran, has spent one year in Evin jail in Tehran without being judged. In a hearing on 31 January the trial was postponed for at least another four months, according to sources in Tehran. The trial has already been postponed twice before, in July and October.

Full story here ;
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/02/a-year-in-jail-without-trial-for-iranian-student-accused-of-spying.html

Omid Kokabee a young, an Iranian graduate student at the University of Texas in Austin, failed to return from a visit to Iran during the winter break.

According to reports from Kaleme, Kokabee a Turkman and man of tradition, with no history of political activism, was arrested in February 2011 when he traveled to Iran to visit with his family. Upon his arrest, Kokabee was first transferred to ward 209 at Evin where he spent more than one month in solitary confinement and later moved to Evin's ward 350.

Kokabee is charged with "communicating with a hostile government" and "illegitimate/illegal earnings" .

During his studies, Kokabee had traveled to Iran on numerous occasions in order to visit with his family.

How ever on his last trip, upon leaving Iran in February of 2011, he was arrested at Khomeini International Airport and transferred to Evin prison's ward 209, a ward under the supervision of the Ministry of Intelligence, where he endured long hours of interrogation. To date, Kokabee has spent more than one month in solitary confinement and another month in prison cells with several cellmates.

During his interrogation process Kokabee was asked why the U.S. government granted him a visa and he responded that he was given a visa because he was a student.