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Iranian Physics Student From UT Gets 10 Years In Jail For Spying
scibri writes "Omid Kokabee, a laser physics graduate student from the University of Texas who has been imprisoned in Tehran for the past 15 months, was sentenced to 10 years in jail on Sunday for allegedly conspiring with foreign countries against Iran. Kokabee was arrested in February 2011 while on a trip home, and charged with 'communicating with a hostile government' (i.e. Israel) and 'illegal earnings.' He has consistently denied the charges, and refused to speak at his trial, where no evidence against him was presented. Several international science groups, including the American Physical Society, have spoken up in his defense, and an online petition has been set up in support."
Sadly, this is a very common theme with the Iranian Government. Usually this is to get the person on board with them. They get out when they are on-board, and often family members are jailed to be sure that they stay on-board.
As long as crap is in power, crap like this happens. How many brilliant people did Stalin and Hitler kill? So many that we have no way of knowing.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
He's the last nuclear physicist in the country that Mossad hasn't killed, and they're sending him to prison?!?
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Oh shit. A fucking online petition. Those Iranian guys a really wishing that they hadn't fucked with that grad student.
I'm glad I live in the US, where the kangaroo courts NEVER forget their kangaroos (freshly extradited from Australia)
The great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths, but by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.
It DOES put things into perspective, especially for people who like to complain about teh evil government in America taking away their rights, when there are governments which REALLY abuse their own people.
We have a LONG way to go before the West descends into such a farce. Or at least I hope so -- the evangelical dominionists don't have anything in their ideology remotely like what they have in Iran, where they can call you "mohareb" and just kill you.
He has consistently denied the charges, and refused to speak at his trial, where no evidence against him was presented.
You're guilty because we say so.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
and refused to speak at his trial
From the Nature article
Judge Abolghasem Salavati of Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolution Court — who is famous for his harsh sentences — tried 10 to 15 people in the same trial, under the collective charge of collaborating with Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.
Hardly "his" trial now, wasn't it? From the sound of it, it was just 10-15 students they all accused of the same thing with some of them (like Sina Zahiri) confessing in order to reduce their sentences. Of course, Zahiri's accusation is contact with Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization (completely unrelated to the Mossad). So now that Zahiri has confessed, Iran has "evidence" that they can now use to justify counter attacks or assassinations or arrests or whatever.
I'm sure in Kokabee's case, he'd have a lighter sentence if he just said that Israel is doing all the stuff of which they accuse him. Because then Iran has evidence to start some international shit (by the way, I am by no means claiming Israel has no such operations inside Iran).
My work here is dung.
Personally, I wouldn't be real surprised. Realize that Israel does actively spy, and even spies on the US. http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE78645B20110907 The US actively watches for Israeli spies. I'm not sure why the rush to assume the guy's innocent. Even tyrannical dictators usually have their reasons. I doubt the arrest was terribly politically expedient and I don't know that the guy has anything Iran needs. The evidence may not be presented the way we're accustomed to in the US and the sentence might be harsh, but that doesn't mean the guy is totally clean, either. And personally, I don't trust Israel any more than I trust Iran. Both ridiculously crooked governments with crazy right-wing dictators.
I know several Iranians, and none of them have been home in 30 years. They're not stupid enough to get caught up in the political tug of war between the US and Iran.
You'll support the Solar Tower project, and ban exports of oil and other fossil fuels.
Then so what? They won't be important to anybody, and they can pound sand if they like.
At least until some super-technological aliens arrive.
But that's decades away!
I imagine his "prison" will be a research facility. He was nabbed before he managed to complete his studies, get a job in the US or some other Western country and never returned.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
90% of the inmates at Gitmo were innocent as well, and they didn't even get a show trial.
No, they got free board and lodging in a tropical paradise instead of scrounging for food in a war-torn desert.
... nevermind, I'm too late.
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
Then why do non-American Slashdotters still criticize the US? By your reasoning, European slashdotters lost the moral high ground centuries ago; Asian and Middle Eastern slashdotters lost the moral high ground millennias ago. Yet finger pointing persists. Perhaps individuals cannot lose the moral high ground by what their governments have done, and opinions like yours are worthless. Or perhaps you are right, and everyone should shut the hell up.
Iran is desperate to plug that hole, but frankly they're heavily outmatched and being sanctioned and sabotaged every step of the way.
If you're imposing strict social codes with ridiculously harsh laws while trying to compete with super powers, you're going to have a bad time.
It's true the USSR and US played a big part in turning Iran into the screw up it is today but at some point the people have gotta turn it around if they don't want to end up completely like North Korea. Smart people don't want to live in places where smart people are bothered and executed. Smart people also can't be told where to live -- they're smart and they figure out ways around that.
My work here is dung.
That simple. Iranians (well, except the MEK) aren't dedicated enough for a protracted violent struggle, so their government will remain as it is.
The Viet Minh and later Viet Cong were willing to die, by the hundreds of thousands, to take power in their country. The Taliban have demonstrated the same will to fight over decades.
Either be willing to fight as a revolutionary or get the fuck out before Serious People eat you. The Mullonazis are Serious People. If you aren't willing to slaughter them, you don't really oppose them.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Morality is absolute, not relative. Either be perfect or kill yourself.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
It's good that citizens complain about injustice and evil abroad, even though their own government is also injust and commits evil actions. Sure, US as a country doesn't have the moral high ground by more than a few inches, but it's better than to shut up.
It's difficult to glean from the articles, but it seems Kokabee is not an American citizen, but an Iranian citizen who was attending an American graduate school. The act of going to an American school was the first risky move, both to his own safety but that of his family. The Iranian government knew he was attending an American school and simply waited for the appropriate time to use him as a pawn. Did he really think he was going to be able to associate himself with America and not end up being used for propaganda purposes by the Iranian government? He's a young kid so maybe he didn't think about it, but his parents should have.
I do sympathize that he felt he had to risk everything in order to get a good education in the field of his choice, but he put himself in a very risky position.
It was 15 people, not 1 person.
There are a lot of very narcissistic people on Slashdot and any discussion that isn't about America they seem to need to find a way to redirect it to the US as soon as they can. I can never be a discussion about civil rights in another nation, they have to try and steer the debate right back around to America so they can do more whining and make more things about themselves.
It is extremely annoying, and precisely as expected for this site.
In the West, the religious fanatics are not in power. The extreme ones who would kill you for blasphemy, apostasy or homosexuality are laughed at or scorned by the rest of the nation. It is not a reasonable expectation that these people will attain enough power to impose their will any time in the near future.
In the Muslim world, it's quite often those extreme religious fanatics who are in charge. Iran executed a man for being homosexual not long ago. Salman Rushdie still has a price on his head because he offended Muslim sensibilities. I believe most Muslim states still execute apostates, and Iran has several under sentence of death right now.
Narcissism is in genaral about one self, not about the USA, so what does narcissism have to do with it? Also, how bad is it to compare something that happens in one country that is viewed as "evil" by the majority of people on this site to something that happens in another country that is in fact home to a very large part of the visitors of this website? Even if just to put something in perspective to what happens "back home" and how evil or non evil the other country, or "home" is when you look at the facts without the propaganda attached to it. Maybe people jump at the opportunity to point out that the USA is not a perfect place and that pointing fingers at "evil" nations while being the pot that calls the kettle black isn't really convincing to smarter folks on this planet. If you don't like that, if you already know that is going to happen, why bother reading the topic, let alone comment on it at all? Offense is taken much more often than that it's given.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
If you're not in Iran, stay out. Iran is run by paranoid idiots and no one is safe there.
Free board? Like the board that they were beaten with?
Free lodging? Like being hung by your wrists for days?
:(){
All the Europeans/Asians/etc who lost the moral high ground centuries/millenia ago *have died*. I wouldn't hold their descendents hostage to a crime their ancestors committed.
In contrast, all the Americans who cheered wars and torture *are still alive* (most likely because they were too much of a chicken shit to go fight that war themselves).
:(){
Free board? Like the board that they were beaten with?
I prefer to call it deep tissue massage
Free lodging? Like being hung by your wrists for days?
You must be referring to the complimentary chiropractic regimen.
Making an example of him so that others are shown their place by example.
Rather similiar to putting someone in the village stocks for all to see.
The first link I clicked in this post was to the petition in support of him. I figured it was the least I could do.
Sadly when I clicked 'Sign' it asked me for my Facebook login. I don't use Facebook, but you might as well ask me for the passwords to my email or checking or any other account because you will receive the same refusal. I'm not comfortable with proving my login credentials to a 3rd party website.
But 90% of the inmates at Gitmo were innocent as well
Citation needed.
Seriously, what you did is worse than Gitmo itself. You just blanket-dismissed 90% of the prisoners as innocent without knowing anything about them. At least the people who put them there knew some of the pertinent facts of why they were imprisoning those people. Mostly because they were caught in acts of war against the US.
See decades ago when the US was seen as the mega super bastion of freedom, truth, shining knight of armor and whatnot, I told my friend, the US is simply a country like others
I don't know how old you are, but no one I know (in the UK) has thought of the US in those terms since 1945.
I suppose members of the old Soviet Bloc had a romanticised view of the US until the 1990s though.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
No one was legally beaten, you may have a few occurances when some action occured but they were not authorized and people got in trouble and jail time, or hung for days.
FYI the amount of time they could be forced to sit or stand in uncomfortable positons was based on scientific studies directly authorized by President clinton on USA citizens.
Don't worry my friend. Brighter days are ahead.
I've worked all over the world, including many third world countries. My guess is no rational person would consider me as being "sheltered."
America isn't "just as bad." It's worse, in many ways. Here the corruption is institutionalized to a far greater extent than any third world country could dream possible.
If posting could only be more like particle physics... then every time a moron and anti-moron collided their posts would disappear in a little poof of energy.
A civilization (and I use the term loosely) that persecutes and imprisons its best and brightest is doomed.
I thought you were talking about the U.S. there for a second.
What, with all the people who are rotten in prison for growing simple herb indoors in an elaborate 100kW hydroponic cultivation facility.
If you ever get out of Iran YOU DO NOT GO BACK. People have died for this before. Don't fucking do it.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel