Omid Kokabi's Right Kidney Removed

Omid Kokabi, a prominent physicist and prisoner in Iran who has been diagnosed with kidney cancer, has undergone surgery. On Wednesday, April 20, his right kidney was completely removed by doctors at Sina Hospital in Tehran. The Campaign for the Defense of Political and Civil Prisoners reported that Mohammad Ebrahimi, a political prisoner in Rajai Shahr prison, has expressed his willingness to donate one of his kidneys to Mr. Kokabi. BBC Persian has also published news about this physics student's surgery. Omid Kokabi, 30 years old, is from Iran's Sunni minority, a graduate of Sharif University of Technology, and a PhD student in atomic physics with a focus on lasers at the University of Texas in the USA. He was arrested at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran when he was leaving the country in 2010 after visiting his family. Mr. Kokabi spent a long time in solitary confinement, and his family and lawyer were unable to contact him. After 15 months of temporary detention, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a court presided over by Judge Salavati on charges of having connections with 'hostile governments.' He later stated in a letter from prison that his arrest and imprisonment occurred after he rejected an offer to collaborate with the military-security apparatus of the Islamic Republic on a military research project. In January 2015, an appeals court of the Islamic Republic upheld his 10-year prison sentence, rejecting the Supreme Court's agreement to review Mr. Kokabi's case. Last week, his lawyer announced that his client had developed kidney cancer while in prison. So far, numerous individuals and international organizations have sent letters to the leaders of the Islamic Republic demanding the release of Omid Kokabi, including 18 Nobel Prize winners in Physics who wrote to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, requesting his order for the release of this distinguished physics student.