Hope Kookabi's 10-Year Sentence Confirmed Again 'Against the Supreme Court's Opinion'

A court of appeals in Iran has confirmed the 10-year prison sentence of Hope Kookabi, a imprisoned physicist, contrary to the Supreme Court's agreement to reopen his case. Saeed Khalili, Mr. Kookabi's lawyer, told Radio Farda: 'Despite the Supreme Court's agreement to reopen the case, the appeals court has upheld the previous ruling after re-examining the case.' The Supreme Court of Iran had annulled Kookabi's conviction in mid-December of this year, and his case was referred back to Branch 54 of the Tehran Court of Appeals for reconsideration. According to judicial procedures in Iran, appellate courts are supposed to follow the Supreme Court's rulings, but the appellate court in Kookabi's case has upheld the previous ruling without considering the Supreme Court's reasons and opinions. Hope Kookabi, a graduate of Sharif University and a postdoctoral student in atomic physics at the University of Texas, was arrested in Bahman 1389 (February 2011) while leaving Iran at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport. This laser specialist was tried in a court titled 'Court of Defendants Accused of Collaborating with Mossad in Israel' presided over by Judge Abolqasem Salavati after 15 months of temporary detention, solitary confinement, and interrogation. Charges against Mr. Kookabi included communication with an adversarial government, illicit income, and espionage, for which he was sentenced to ten years in prison. His sentence was upheld in Branch 36 of the Court of Appeals, and since then, this physics graduate has been serving his sentence in Evin Prison. In Aban of this year, Kookabi won the 'Freedom and Scientific Responsibility' award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In the association's statement, the reason for Kookabi's imprisonment was stated as his refusal to cooperate with Iran's nuclear programs. Eighteen Nobel laureates, in an open letter addressed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, called for the release of this 32-year-old Iranian physicist. Following that letter, more than 160 doctoral students and graduates in physics sent a letter to the offices of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the heads of the three branches in Iran, requesting urgent medical attention for Hope Kookabi's health condition and a review of his judicial process. After the Supreme Court of Iran agreed to Mr. Kookabi's request for a retrial, it raised several objections to the court's documents, one of which was the court's reference to 'communication with an adversarial government,' while according to expert opinion and inquiries from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this ministry stated that no government currently qualifies as an 'adversarial government' with Iran. Furthermore, Hope Kookabi has denied his confessions and statements in the initial case, describing them as confessions made under pressure. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the first deputy of the judiciary, emphasized in January of this year in response to a journalist's question about Hope Kookabi's fate that the case would once again go to the Supreme Court, and if the Supreme Court disagrees with the ruling issued, a public insistence committee of the Supreme Court will be formed to issue a persistent ruling.