December 12, 2014
Iran’s Supreme Court has rejected the legal rationale for convicting student Omid Kokabee and ordered the appeals court that approved the conviction to review the case again.
Kokabee had been convicted and sentenced to 10 years for “contact with a hostile government.”
Kokabee lawyer said the ruling was issued October 11, but the lawyer only made it public this week.
“By ordering a further review, the Supreme Court has confirmed this prisoner’s innocence,” the lawyer, Saeed Khalili, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI).
The Supreme Court decision states:
“No country is in a state of hostilities with Iran, and political differences with other states do not constitute hostilities. The court was mistaken in its interpretation of this expression [contact with a hostile government].
“Secondly, as the individual convicted in this case has repeatedly presented in his defense, he was not in a position to have access to classified and confidential information he could pass it on to a hostile government. Scientific discussions, exchanging ideas, delivering important academic topics in academic conferences, and receiving medals or awards or benefits for academic and scholastic achievements are not considered crimes.
“Thirdly, in cases where the suspect’s confessions comprise the sole evidence proving the crime, his denial can refute that evidence, unless the case contains [other incriminating] evidence and documents against his denial, which was not the case here.”
Kokabee, 33, was a post-doctoral student of nuclear physics at the University of Texas at Austin when he was arrested January 30, 2011, at Tehran’s International Airport as he was preparing to return to Texas after visiting his family in Iran.
On May 14, 2012, he was sentenced by Judge Abol-Qassem Salavati, one of the handful of judges who handle most political cases in Iranian courts.
Kokabee wrote in a letter in 2013 saying his arrest followed his refusal to work on a military research project.
This fall, 31 winners of the Nobel Prize in physics signed an open letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi calling for Kokabee’s“immediate and unconditional” release.