Increased Attention to the Case of Omid Kokabi in Iranian Newspapers

While news about political prisoners often does not make it to the front pages of Iranian newspapers, the newspaper 'Qanoon' has taken the unusual step of publishing a report on the illness and surgery of imprisoned physicist Omid Kokabi on its front page in its Tuesday issue, with the headline 'Hope for Freedom.' It quotes Ibrahim Behnam Asl, a judge at the Supreme Court, stating, 'There is a possibility of converting Omid Kokabi's punishment.' Ibrahim Behnam Asl, a judge in Branch 36 of the Supreme Court, had previously deemed the initial court ruling against Kokabi incorrect and called for a retrial. He mentioned in an interview with 'Qanoon' that 'a retrial order has been issued for Omid Kokabi's case and sent to the corresponding branch,' but the corresponding branch, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, headed by Mohammad Mogheiseh, 'after re-examination, confirmed the previous ruling made by the initial court.' This Supreme Court judge noted that 'since criminal penalties are related to public offenses, public order, and sovereign matters, the court must exercise greater oversight to prevent the execution of erroneous judgments.' He added that 'since the court's oversight is formal, it cannot compel courts to comply with its views.' In response to 'Qanoon''s question about whether there is a possibility of converting the punishment given Kokabi, who is in poor health and cannot endure prison, he stated: 'If a person is unable to endure imprisonment, the execution judge can propose to the issuing court to convert the individual's punishment. If the accused is in a difficult condition, this request may be accepted.' The newspaper pointed out that 'Omid Kokabi, a 31-year-old Iranian genius,' was studying at the University of Texas but 'traveled to Iran in February 2011 and was arrested at the airport upon leaving Iran and sentenced to 10 years in prison.' Quoting Saeed Khalili, Kokabi's lawyer, it reported: 'My client has long suffered from kidney pain and sometimes stone passage in prison, but only received pain relief, and even the most basic medical service, an ultrasound, was denied to him; otherwise, the tumor and its malignancy could have been identified much earlier, and his kidney removal might not have been necessary.' The editorial of 'Qanoon' from Mohammad Kazemi, the elected representative of Malayer, and also the 'second note' from Abbas Tadin, a legal expert, emphasized the existence of legal pathways within current Iranian laws for the freedom of Omid Kokabi. Among the mentioned solutions is Article 502 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which states that 'if the convicted person suffers from a physical or mental illness to the extent that enduring imprisonment exacerbates the illness or delays recovery, the execution judge can suspend the execution of the sentence or submit a request for the prisoner's release to the court.' Abbas Tadin wrote in 'Qanoon': 'Omid Kokabi is in the hospital, and the issue of his return to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence is problematic because a person sentenced to imprisonment must serve their sentence unless they qualify for leniency measures such as pardon, conditional release, or suspension of execution, which he may qualify for, and given Kokabi's current condition, if the law permits, he can benefit from these leniency measures.' 'Conditional release' and 'case-specific pardon' are other solutions mentioned by legal experts in 'Qanoon.' The newspaper 'Javan,' close to the Revolutionary Guards, referred to a meeting of the 'Coalition Council of Principlists,' quoting Gholamali Haddad Adel as saying: 'Some officials must show their neutrality in the election process, but they openly declare their bias towards a political faction and invite people to vote for a specific candidate.' The 'Coalition Council of Principlists' urged the Ministry of Interior, the government, and the Guardian Council to pay attention to these violations. The newspaper 'Hamdel' described part of Haddad Adel's remarks as 'a new attack on the results of the Tehran elections' and reported that Gholamali Haddad Adel, the spokesperson for the Principlists' coalition, who failed to enter the tenth parliament after the elections on March 7, stated on Tuesday: 'Those who claim victory on March 7 are the ones who caused the turmoil in 2009.' The newspaper 'Ebtekar' also described Haddad Adel's remarks as 'the last attack of the man of literature' on the government and reformists, stating: 'Gholamreza Haddad Adel, who is spending his last days representing the people of Tehran, participated in a meeting with reporters and focused more on criticizing the government and the elected representatives.' According to this newspaper, while the entire list of 30 reformist candidates from Tehran was elected to parliament by citizens' votes, Gholamali Haddad Adel stated: 'Reformists won in Tehran with a slight difference.' The newspaper 'Etemad' also published a report on the electoral attack on the government, stating that on Tuesday 'two principlist figures accused Rouhani's cabinet of interfering in the elections,' naming Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani and Gholamali Haddad Adel as the two principlists who accused the Rouhani government of interfering in the elections ahead of the second round of elections. Meanwhile, Hossein Ali Amiri, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, rejected these accusations and told 'Etemad': 'Those who claim government interference in the elections should provide evidence.' Hossein Ali Amiri pointed out that 'both the entire authority and the cabinet are referred to as the government,' stating that Gholamali Haddad Adel 'should clarify who he means by the government? The authority or the cabinet?' and 'if Mr. Haddad Adel means the cabinet, such a thing has not existed at all, but if he means another institution, he should provide us with evidence with a specific address so that we can follow up on the matter.' Ali Soufi, head of the reformists' election headquarters in Tehran during the March 7 elections, also reacted to Haddad Adel's remarks, asking in 'Qanoon': 'Does anyone who defeats the principlists become a seditionist!?' Abdullah Naseri, a reformist figure, in a note in 'Etemad,' called for cabinet reform and assessed any potential action by Hassan Rouhani in this regard as 'accountability for the message of March 7.' The newspaper 'Shargh' headlined its front page 'Death of a Major Broker, Oil Claims in Coma,' quoting Hamid Hosseini, a board member of the Union of Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Exporters, stating that part of the oil money sold by the Police Foundation to Sri Lanka 'was in the hands of Mohammad Saeed Al-Aqili and did not return, and now, several months after Al-Aqili's death, the return of this money seems unlikely in the short term.' The newspaper 'Kayhan' reported the possibility of Ahmad Jannati becoming the head of the Assembly of Experts and quoted Mohsen Araki, a representative from Markazi province in the fifth Assembly of Experts, stating: 'Ayatollah Jannati is one of the top figures who is a candidate for this position, and some are calling for his presidency, but we will see what happens in the future.' 'The End of Praise in the Music Box' is the title of a report in 'Etemad' that narrates the prosecutor of Varamin regarding the murder of Setayesh Ghorishi. Abolqasem Morad Talab told 'Etemad': 'The 16-year-old accused lured the victim, who had come to play with her niece on the first floor of their house, to the second floor and killed her.' However, 'it is still unclear whether the accused used a knife or some other means to commit the murder.' This judicial official also stated: 'After committing the murder, the accused, assuming that acid could destroy the corpse, went outside the house and bought some acid from a construction materials shop in their neighborhood. After that, he placed the corpse in an organ box and poured acid on it, but he was unsuccessful in destroying it,' and later 'he lured his friend to the location under the pretext that their air conditioner was broken, but his friend immediately left the house after seeing the corpse and informed the Imam Jom'e of Khairabad, who, after learning about the incident, informed the family of the killer. They also turned their son in to the police station one day after the crime at 19:30.' According to 'Etemad,' the prosecutor of Varamin rejected the possibility of involvement of other individuals in this crime, stating that the accused 'committed this crime alone. His father is a retired employee of a government agency. They, like the victim's family, have a good social standing.' Abolqasem Morad Talab regarding the delay in providing the forensic report, which was previously announced to be finalized by Tuesday, told 'Etemad': 'On Tuesday, the forensic department concluded that they needed to review the accused's personality file again. Therefore, a joint meeting was held with the presence of the victim's guardians, the accused's family, and the accused's school principal to clarify other aspects of the incident.' The newspaper 'Shahrvand' dedicated its front page photo to 'Family Homelessness in a Tent,' describing it as 'a new phenomenon on the outskirts of Greater Tehran.' This report mentions the life of a ten-member family in the parking lot of Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum, who have been sleeping in a tent for some time due to their inability to pay the 350,000 tomans rent for a house. Zahra Jafarzadeh, the reporter for 'Shahrvand,' also referred to other instances of homelessness near this family's tent and even quoted one of them named 'Golbahar,' who has a ten-year-old sick child, saying: 'We were tenants in Amol, we had no money, the landlord kicked us out, our belongings are still there. Now we can't even afford to take my son to the doctor,' and now 'we have no one and nothing, my husband is unemployed, we can't even afford to buy a tent, this blanket was given to us by one of them.' 'Shahrvand' also reported on its front page that a week after the announcement of the start of activities of seven thousand undercover police patrols in the capital, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, announced on Tuesday in a meeting with the police commander and his deputies that 'the police are obliged to act in visible crimes. The Tehran prosecutor's office has authorized the police to deal with drunk driving, women's hijab violations in vehicles, and unusual driving.' 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