Omid Kokabee

Omid Kokabee (Persian: امید کوکبی; born 1982) is an Iranian experimental laser physicist at the University of Texas at Austin who was arrested in Iran after returning from the United States to visit his family on January 30, 2011. He was initially charged with "gathering and colluding against national security." Still, later, after being acquitted of the primary charges, he was put on trial for “communicating with a hostile government (USA)” and “illegitimate/illegal earnings”. Even though he repeatedly denied all charges against himself, he was finally sentenced to ten years in prison. In September 2013, the American Physical Society announced Kokabee as a co-recipient of its 2014 Andrei Sakharov Prize for "his courage in refusing to use his physics knowledge to work on projects that he deemed harmful to humanity in the face of extreme physical and psychological pressure". In November 2013, Amnesty International released a public statement declaring Kokabee a "prisoner of conscience, held solely for his refusal to work on military projects in Iran and as a result of spurious charges related to his legitimate scholarly ties with academic institutions outside of Iran." In that statement Amnesty asked for "his immediate and unconditional release". In October 2014, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) awarded Kokabee its 2014 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award "for his courageous stand and willingness to endure imprisonment rather than violate his moral stance that his scientific expertise not be used for destructive purposes and for his efforts to provide hope and education to fellow prisoners". While in prison, he translated "Human Rights Atlas" by Andrew Fagan to Persian. The Persian translation was published as a book with the same title by Iranian publisher Armanshahr in April 2015 before Omid's release. It was distributed and made available to the public in Iran....