In light of the President’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia, CCS requests his assistance in the release of two prisoners: Mohammed al-Qahtani and Raif Badawi. Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Professor of Economics was sentenced in 2013 to 10 years in prison for speaking out for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia. He co-founded the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, calling for Saudi Arabia to implement ... Continue Reading>>
Our Work
Release Omid Kokabee from Prison
Omid Kokabee, a graduate student at University of Texas, Austin who has been in prison in Iran for over five years, has been diagnosed with kidney cancer. Surgery was performed on Tuesday, April 19th. CCS wrote Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Attorney General of Iran, requesting Omid’s release so that he may recuperate at his family home upon discharge from the hospital. April 20, 2016 To: Mohammad ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Requests US Observer at Court Hearing for Turkish Professors
The first four academics who were arrested for signing a “Peace Petition” will attend a court hearing on Friday, April 22 at 2:00 pm. CCS has written the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, John Bass, to request that he send a representative to observe the hearing. It is felt that attendance from the international community is critical to assure that the hearings are fair, legal and that international ... Continue Reading>>
Omid Kokabee Diagnosed with Kidney Cancer
Medical tests performed on Omid Kokabee have revealed, that after years of seeking medical care that was not responded to, he has been diagnosed with kidney cancer. Kokabee began complaining of pain in 2011 but was ignored. CCS has written Iranian authorities on several occasions requesting that his medical concerns be addressed and that he receive proper care. On April 16, 2016, it was ... Continue Reading>>
Turkish Scholars Arrested, Investigated and Fired from Jobs for Signing Petition
Over 1100 Turkish scholars signed a petition requesting better treatment of the Kurds and asking for a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish situation. Many of those who signed the petition were terminated from their jobs, detained on criminal charges, and investigated. Four scholars have been arrested. CCS has written to President Erdogan requesting that he intercede and release the professors who ... Continue Reading>>
Scholar Ilham Tohti Remains in Prison
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>>
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>>