Iranian Physics Student From UT Gets 10 Years In Jail For Spying 253
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."
Not Quite "His" Trial (Score:5, Informative)
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 [iranian.com]) 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).
Re:Nothing new here (Score:4, Informative)
I was wondering how long it would be before some sheltered fool claimed America was just as bad.
Actually [wordpress.com], it [wordpress.com] is [motherboard.tv] somewhat [aljunnah.com] worse [thepeoplesvoice.org].
Re:Nothing new here (Score:1, Informative)
And you sir have a reading comprehension problem.
I'm talking about judicial guarantees, not police violence.
A court in europe cannot convict you based on undisclosed evidence. It has to be public, all public. Not so in the US. Get to terms with this slight difference.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:3, Informative)
If you're talking about the US, I fail to see where the difference is. The current President of the US authorized the assassination of a US citizen overseas without due process: http://www.salon.com/2010/04/07/assassinations_2/ [salon.com] and now he's dead. [1]
Worse, to this day even the head of the FBI doesn't know whether or not this applies to US citizens on US soil: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/07/mueller-have-to-check-with-holder-whether-targeted-killing-rule-is-outside-us/ [foxnews.com]
How, exactly, is this not tyranny and oppression? It appears to me that all the President has to do is point a finger and say "daveschroeder is a terrorist and I have credible evidence proving it." You'll never know what, if anything, that evidence is, because it's protected by "National Security", you know.
Regards,
dj
Notes:
[1] And you know what? I don't care whether or not he was a "bad person", as many claim. What I care about is that our President ignored the Constitution, deprived a US citizen of their rights and had him killed without being arrested, without be charged and without a trial.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Informative)
Your characterization of American justice is incorrect. You seem to be talking about the dangerously-close-to-entrapment behavior that the FBI engages in, cooking up plots and luring idiots into taking the bait, and then waving them around as evidence that the FBI is protecting us.
What about foreign nationals like Kahlid el-Masri? He was some innocent German guy who the CIA had kidnapped. The CIA agent who recommended his detention wasn't punished; she was promoted!
Or Maher Arar? Kidnapped and rendered to Syria for torture. The Canadian government paid him restitution for their part in his detention, rendition, and torture. But when he tried to sue the US? Nope, sorry, State Secrets.
Or perhaps Lakhdar Boumediene? He was a member of the Red Crescent (think of it like the Muslim version of the Red Cross) He was held for 7 years until a federal judge finally ruled that the government had no evidence. When one side of his nose was broken, US personnel force fed him (twice a day) through the other nostril. Sometimes they missed his stomach and the tube went into his lungs instead. Oops.
Murat Kurnaz? Another German, held for five years in Gitmo. There's a DoD memo stating that he was cleared for release about one year about his detention, and yet he languished for four more years anyway.
What about the Uighurs? Everyone admits they aren't guilty of any crimes, and yet many are still stuck in Gitmo after nearly a decade.
These are ALL perfectly fucking innocent human beings, who were never charged or tried despite spending years and years in detention, sometimes almost as long as this student has been sentenced. There was no plot. There was hardly an investigation.
I say again, at least this student was given a sham trial before being imprisoned. That sham trial is more than any of those folks I listed above got before they were imprisoned and tortured. The difference between a sham trial with no evidence and no trial at all is in practice negligible.
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Informative)
Or perhaps Lakhdar Boumediene? He was a member of the Red Crescent (think of it like the Muslim version of the Red Cross) He was held for 7 years until a federal judge finally ruled that the government had no evidence. When one side of his nose was broken, US personnel force fed him (twice a day) through the other nostril. Sometimes they missed his stomach and the tube went into his lungs instead. Oops.
I went to read about the guy on Wikipedia, and...
"In January 2002, the Supreme Court of Bosnia ruled that there was no evidence to hold the six men, ordered the charges dropped and the men released. American forces, including troops who were part of a 3,000 man American peace-keeping contingent in Bosnia were waiting for the six men upon their release from Bosnia custody, seized them, and transported them to Guantanamo."
What. The. Fuck? Last I checked, Bosnia was an independent sovereign country. How can this kind of crap be pulled off? Did they do it Mossad-style, or what?
Re:Nothing new here (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, I know, right?
It's not like there was a law passed that allowed the executive to hold prisoners indefinitely. (NDAA)
It's not like there were multiple inmates from Gitmo who have Supreme Court rulings bearing their name. (Hamdi, Hamdan, and Boumediene)
Re:Nothing new here (Score:-1, Informative)
The roblem with that is that they dont want to go to china , as china will shoot them dead in a heart beat, the chinese know they are guilty and will nto fuck around like us idiots!