Freeing Omid

This week brought news of a rare promising development in the case of Omid Kokabee, the 33-year-old physicist who has been unjustly imprisoned in Iran since 2011. As reported by Physics Today (and first reported by Nature), the Iranian government has granted Kokabee a medical furlough, which allows him to stay with his family and recover from kidney removal surgery. In addition to suffering from kidney cancer, Kokabee has stomach and heart problems and needs major dental work. The furlough is expected to last a few months.

The question is what will happen next.

Although the Iranian government obviously has no problem ignoring its own laws to keep Kokabee imprisoned, it has been known to capitulate under pressure from abroad. Furloughs sometimes end in freedom, Elise Auerbach of Amnesty International USA told me, because they enable the government to get political prisoners off its hands without appearing weak.

That’s why now is an especially important time to spread the word about Kokabee’s plight. International advocacy in the form of rallies and Twitter messages around the time of Kokabee’s surgery may well have played a role in the furlough decision. An even greater response could help secure Kokabee’s unconditional release.

The best thing people can do is keep Kokabee in the spotlight, says Michele Irwin, international programs administrator at the American Physical Society. (Disclaimer: APS is a member society of the American Institute of Physics, which pays my salary.) Spread the word among colleagues, or chime in on Twitter with the #FreeOmid hashtag. “The more that the Iranian government is reminded that Kokabee is not forgotten and the world is watching, the more likely they are to treat him properly,” Irwin says.

Irwin urges caution for those who want to go further and write to Iran’s leaders, an approach championed by Amnesty International. She worries that batches of scolding letters could harden Iran’s stance. “The government has really dug in its heels in this case, so they are not going to listen to fists pounding on a table,” she says. Amnesty International’s Auerbach says she believes that the benefits of sending letters outweigh the risk of upsetting the government.

If you do want to appeal directly to Iranian officials, consider expressing compassion for Kokabee’s suffering and hope for more scientific collaboration between Iran and the rest of the world. It’s probably not lost on at least some Iranian officials that Kokabee’s continued imprisonment threatens such collaboration. This kind of message could resonate, Irwin says, particularly now that the recent nuclear deal has relaxed sanctions.