The mother of jailed student Omid Kokabi has written directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader and urged him to facilitate the release of her son.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that Safar-Bibi Haqnazari has written to Ayatollah Khamenei saying: “If you wished, you could, through impartial sources trusted by yourself, not those who have fabricated charges against my son, find out that my son is innocent.”
Omid Kokabi, a nuclear physics graduate studying at Texas University, has been in the quarantine section of Evin Prison for five years. He was arrested in February 2010 upon returning for a visit to Iran and was sentenced to 10 years in jail for “collaboration with enemy states”.
His mother reports that in all this time he has not been allowed any furloughs, adding that the family is seriously concerned for his health.
Kokabi has denied all charges brought against him, saying earlier: “I was a scientific researcher without any political views or activities. They wanted to force me to work in certain organizations which I felt did not move in the interest of the world or Iran, so they issued such an unjust sentence for me.”
Kokabi has alleged that the government asked him to cooperate with the government’s nuclear program or suffer 10 years in jail.
Kokabi graduated from Sanati Sharif University in Tehran and has pursued graduate studies in nuclear physics at universities in Barcelona and Texas.
