University Of Texas-Austin Students, Faculty Rally For Imprisoned Physicist [UPDATED]

AUSTIN, TX -- Slowly yet surely, friends and supporters of Omid Kokabee -- a University of Texas at Austin physicist imprisoned in Iran now stricken with cancer -- are getting out the word about his plight.

Students, faculty and others gathered outside the Robert Lee Moore engineering hall on campus grounds in a quiet rally to call attention to Kokabee's ordeal. For five years, the scientist has been languishing in an Iranian jail for what his supporters call trumped-up charges.

He was visiting Iran to see family members in January 2011 when he was detained. According to International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran officials, he was initially arrested for "...gathering and colluding against national security" before an acquittal on those charges. Later, the charges were changed to “communicating with a hostile government (the United States)” and “illegitimate/illegal earnings."

As a result, he was sentenced to ten years in prison.

The real reason for his imprisonment, his supporters claim, is that Kokabee refused to share his knowledge working as an experimental laser physicist at UT. Now, he languishes behind bars with a preexisting kidney ailment devolving into cancer, his attorney has previously confirmed.

Some 60 people came out to the Wednesday rally in solidarity, donning T-shirts emblazoned with the physicits name and bearing fliers of his image with reading simply: "Free Omid!"

"We've gathered to tell Omid we are supporting him," Navid Yaghmazadeh, a Ph.d student at UT and the event's organizer, said. "All the charges we have seen are false charges, and we're asking for a fair trial. What we're asking is for him to get the immediate medical care he needs."

Yaghmazadeh ackowledged in a prior interview that he and other supporters have been frustrated with the lack of attention the imprisoned physicist has gotten. His efforts to alert people of his ordeal actually began some years ago, bolstered with a petition that garnered some 1,000 signatures demanding Kokabee's release.

But efforts to engage the previous UT president to join the cause fell on deaf ears, Yaghmazadeh suggested: "Unfortunately, the previous president didn't do anything. Nothing at all."

But the efforts of Kokabee's supporters -- many of them personal friends of the jailed scientist -- are now making some major inroads.

On Tuesday morning, Yaghmazadeh received a message from University of Texas-Austin President Gregory L. Fenves via Twitter: "Chancellor @billmcraven & I sent a letter about Omid Kokabee to the Ambassador of Iran to the UN," Fenves wrote, attaching a copy of the correspondence to Yaghmazadeh.

"During his time studying on campus in the physics department, Mr. Kokabee was a valued member of our academic community and a promising young scholar," Fenves wrote to Galam Ali Khoshroo, the ambassador of Iran to the United Nations in a letter dated April 25. "At the university, we are very concerned about his imprisonment and now life-threatening health condition."'

Later, he states the university's stance directly: "On behalf of the faculty and students of The University of Texas at Austin, we respectfully request that your government release Mr. Kokabee on humanitarian and medical grounds, so that he may receive appropriate treatment and resume his studies at The University of Texas at Austin."

Yaghmazadeh had hoped for a personal meeting with Fenves to talk about Kokabee, but said he was gratified at Fenves' response.

Just one day after heavy storms slammed across Central Texas -- leaving power outages and felled trees in their wake --- Yaghmazadeh and his compatriots gathered to rally around the physicist, a gentle breeze enveloping the scene and the sun's rays shing brightly amid pleasant climate of about 80 degrees.

Slowly yet surely, light -- both figurative and literal -- has begun to emerge.

>>> Photos by Tony Cantu: Yaghmazadeh shows his support for imprisoned physicist in Iran, along with fellow supporters.

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From April 21:

AUSTIN, TX -- Omid Kokabee, a University of Texas at Austin physicist languishing in an Iran prison for the past five years for refusing to work on military research for the Islamic Republic, has been diagnosed with kidney cancer, according to media reports.

Allies of the imprisoned scientist are attributing the cancer to Iranian prison authorities' years-long refusal to allow him to undergo treatment for his kidney illness. The diagnosis has now galvanized students and professors at UT-Austin -- many of whom count Kokabee as a personal friend -- to call attention to his plight and to urge university officials to do the same.

"Omid should be here working on his research, not in prison," Navid Yaghmazadeh, a Ph.d student at UT, tweeted university president Gregory L. Fenves. "I wish he had more suppot from UT," he added in a separate tweet.

In an emailed exchange with Patch, Yaghmazadeh said a rally is now being organized for next week outside the Robert Lee Moore Hall on campus to call attention to Kokabee's strife. Yaghmazadeh, an Irnanian student who enrolled at UT-Austin for his doctoral studies in 2010, said he also is seeking a meeting with Fenves calling for him to help raise awareness to the ordeal of the experimental laser physicist.

As for next week's rally, the computer science student said the details are still being worked out. He said the rally would likely be attended mainly by Iranian students and Kokabee's friends in the physics department. Additionally, supporters are using the powers of social media to spread the word further about the physicist's prisoner-of-conscience imprisonment.

"People are trying to raise awareness about Omid's situation by using the FreeOmid hashtag," the student wrote. "Right now mostly Iranian students and Omid's friends in the physics department in UT are aware of his situation, but we are trying to spread the word by getting help from the university."

Kokabee was arrested in Iran during a visit there to see his family in January 2011. According to International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran officials, he was initially arrested for "...gathering and colluding against national security" before an acquittal on those charges.

He was later successfully tried for a charge of “communicating with a hostile government (the United States)” and “illegitimate/illegal earnings." He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

In a statement, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called for Kokabee's immediate release from prison for medical treatment.

“The continued endangerment of Kokabee’s life is tantamount to torture,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Campaign, said in a prepared statement. “The international outcry over the harsh and unjustified treatment of this gifted young scientist must be loud enough for Tehran to hear.”

Campaign officials said Kokabee has suffered from kidney stones and other serious ailments throughout his imprisonment, yet no attempt to secure medical attention for him have been made by prison officials. The lack of medical treatment has now resulted in the life-threatening scenario the 34-year-old scientist now faces.

Kokabee’s lawyer, Saeed Khalili, confirmed Kokabee's illness during an April 16 interview with the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA).

"After several tests and check-ups in the hospital, it has become clear that Mr. Kokabee has a malignant tumor in his kidney and needs an immediate nephrectomy to remove all or part of his kidneys," Khalili said.

The planned rally at UT is not the first time people have been galvanized in calling for the young scientist's release from prison. In October 2014, 31 Nobel Physics laureates joined thousands of activists in calling for his release. The American Physical Society awarded its 2014 Andrei Sakharov Prize to Kokabee “...for his courage in refusing to use his physics knowledge to work on projects that he deemed harmful to humanity.”

More recently, the Committee of Concerned Scientists published an open letter on January 30, 2016 to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani calling for Kokabee’s unconditional release.

Yaghmazadeh hopes to convince UT officials -- largely silent in addressing the fate of their young physicist, he suggests -- to do more to call attention to his suffering.

"I'm going to ask for a meeting with the UT president," Yaghmazadeh said. "I don't know if they will let me meet with him or not, but I will explain the situation to him and ask for his help."