a physics student who was jailed earlier this year while on a visit home to see his family.
Kokabee was a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin at the time he disappeared into the Iranian judicial system.
Kokabee is a specialist in the field of physics known as optics and it was the four leading optics organizations that wrote seeking his freedom—the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE); the European Optical Society, the International Commission for Optics and the Optical Society.
Kokabee, 29, is a graduate of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran who later studied at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Spain where he obtained a master’s degree in photonics. He then went to Texas for a doctorate. He is a member of SPIE.
Earlier this year, after a visit to his family in Iran, Kokabee was arrested at the airport and imprisoned. Kokabee was scheduled to go on trial in July, but the date has been postponed indefinitely. He is believed to be detained at Evin Prison in Tehran.
In the letter addressed to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi, the presidents of the four optical societies appealed for a quick review of Kokabee’s case so that he can resume his research at the start of the academic year this month.
“We value the contributions that Mr. Kokabee has made to the field of optics and expect him to become a respected member of the research community if he is allowed to continue his studies,” the letter said.
Matt Ervin, the graduate coordinator for the University of Texas physics department, said last spring, “We assume he’s been detained because he’s an atomic molecular physicist and works with lasers, which are sometimes used in power generation and weapons research.”
But John Keto, a graduate adviser in physics, noted that Kokabee “has nothing to do with nuclear physics” and had not yet begun doing research as part of his PhD studies.
Unconfirmed claims by the online Green Voice of Freedom suggest Kokabee was under arrest for “communicating with a hostile government” and “illegitimate earnings,” charges that are based on the fact that the University of Texas had paid for his travel expenses home.
According to Kalame website, Kokabee, a Sunni Turkmen, may have been arrested in an effort to discourage the academic pursuits of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran. “He never was involved in political issues,” says an Iranian colleague living in Spain.
Another friend hypothesizes Kokabee may have aroused suspicions by traveling to Iran at least four times in 2010. Meanwhile, “many of our Iranian students are extremely nervous about what will happen if they try to return,” says Keto of Iranians on the University of Texas Austin campus.
Kokabee scored 29th in the Konkoor examination, the national university entrance examination taken each year by tens of thousands of high school graduates in Iran.
