Ilham Tohti, an Economics professor formerly at Minzu University in Beijing, and an advocate for the rights of the Chinese Uighur community, still sits in jail, sentenced to a life in prison for expressing his beliefs in a peaceful way. CCS has written again to President Xi Jinping asking him to please investigate this case and release Ilham Tohti as well as the other individuals that are in ... Continue Reading>>
Our Work
Letters to the EU and Iran in Support of Dr. Rafiee-Fanood
CCS has written both the President of Iran and the High Representative of the European Union on behalf of Dr. Mohammad Hossein Rafiee-Fanood, a retired professor of chemistry who has been imprisoned in Iran for peacefully expressing his political views. Rafiee was arrested in June 2015 without a court order or justification. Dr. Rafiee’s conviction and six-year prison sentence has been upheld ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Urges Chile to Reopen the Investigation into Boris Weisfeiler’s Disappearance
In January 1985, during the rule of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Boris Weisfeiler, a Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University, disappeared while hiking alone in the Andes. According to the hundreds of United States declassified documents, it appears that Dr. Weisfeiler was kidnapped, questioned and tortured by the Chilean military and eventually executed. Take Action Sign the ... Continue Reading>>
Trial for Moroccan Professor Scheduled for March 23
Maati Monjib, a Moroccan historian and Professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, is scheduled for trial, with other co-defendants, for “harming internal state security.” Monjib is cited for expressing political opinions as President of the Moroccan Association for Investigative Journalism and as a co-founder of Freedom Now, an organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression and ... Continue Reading>>
Masaud Jahromi Deported from Bahrain
In 2011, Dr. Jahromi, who was previously Chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Ahlia University’s College of Mathematical Sciences and Information Technology and holds a PhD in Telecommunication Networking from the University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom, was sentenced in 2011 to four months of prison and a fine of 500 dinars for participating in “unauthorized ... Continue Reading>>
2015 Annual Report
During 2015, the Committee of Concerned Scientists continued to advocate on behalf of scientists, academics, engineers and physicians. We wrote in concern for more than 21 individuals or groups of individuals, located in 11 countries. We generally addressed our letters to the heads of state, as well as to the country’s ambassadors, the United States ambassador for the particular jurisdiction, ... Continue Reading>>
Bahraini Engineer’s Appeal for Deportation to be Held March 6th
Dr. Masaud Mirza Jahromi, who was wrongfully stripped of his Bahrainian citizenship on January 31, 2015, has been notified that he would be deported shortly. An Appeal of that decision is to be held on March 6th. Should the decision be upheld, Dr. Jahromi will be deported shortly — without his family. CCS has written requesting the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs to correct this error and ... Continue Reading>>
Polish Government Threatens to Strip Honor from Historian
Prominent Princeton-based Historian, Jan Gross is threatened with having his state honor, the Order of Merit he received in 1996, stripped from him by the Polish President. The Polish government, taking a turn to the right, is trying to deny the historical facts of the Holocaust and Poland's involvement in it. Gross has written many historical books indicating Poland's involvement in the death ... Continue Reading>>
After Five Years in Prison, An Appeal for Omid Kokabee’s Release
On the fifth anniversary of Omid Kokabee's imprisonment in Iran, CCS appeals to President Rouhani for his unconditional release. Kokabee, a Iranian doctoral student in physics at the University of Texas — Austin, was arrested in 2011 while visiting his family in Iran. On August 20, 2015, Omid Kokabee turned 33, it was his fifth birthday in prison. Two months later he developed anemia, abdominal ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Signs Scholars at Risk Letter in Support of Turkish Scholars
New York, January 21, 2016 – This afternoon, a coalition of 20 higher education networks and associations from around the world have issued a joint public letter expressing grave concern over recent reports of widespread pressures on members of Turkey’s higher education and research community. Read the Letter The Committee of Concerned Scientists is one of the 20 organizations that co-signed ... Continue Reading>>