"Keeping silent is not an option," CCS Board Member Svetlana Stone Wachtell says at New York Academy of Science ceremony on September 30, where she received the 2010 Human Rights of Scientists Heinz R. Pagels Award, in recognition of her 30 years of service with the NYAS Human Rights Committee. She expressed worry about the Academy's continued commitment to the human rights of scientists. ... Continue Reading>>
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Iranian scholar sentenced
Professor Emadeddin Baghi, an Iranian scholar, has received a six-year prison sentence for “propaganda against the regime” and “gathering and colluding to disturb national security”. The court charges refer to an interview Baghi conducted with the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, broadcast on the Persian service of the BBC in December 2009, shortly after the death of Montazeri. Exercising Professor ... Continue Reading>>
Bahraini mechanical engineer arrested
Professor Abdul Jail Al-Singace, a scholar of mechanical engineering at the University of Bahrain and Director of the Human Rights Bureau of the Haq Movement for Civil Liberties and Democracy, an opposition political movement, was arrested on August 13, 2010 at Bahrain International Airport, upon his return from the United Kingdom, and taken to an undisclosed location. This followed his address on ... Continue Reading>>
Vietnamese mathematician arrested
Professor Pham Minh Hoang, lecturer in mathematics at Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic Institute, was arrested on August 13, 2010 on charges of participating in a banned opposition political group, the Viet Tan. According to media reports, the arrest followed the interrogation two days earlier of Professor Hoang and his wife at a police station in Ho Chi Minh City, where they were questioned on their ... Continue Reading>>
Igor Sutyagin Released
We welcomed the release of Dr. Igor Sutyagin, the Russian academic, who served more than a decade in prison in Siberia on espionage charges that we protested starting in 2001 as unfounded. Sutyagin was an arms control researcher for a British company to which he provided published and openly available information. ... Continue Reading>>
AAAS list of human rights organizations
The Science and Human Rights Coalition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has prepared a comprehensive list of organizations involved in the defense of scientists' human rights. The "Welfare of Scientists" working group of the Coalition, which collected this information under the leadership of Drs. Juan Gallardo and John Gillespie, hopes that the list, together ... Continue Reading>>
Cuban Dissident Released
Darsi Ferrer, the director of the Juan Bruno Zayas Health and Human Rights Centre, was convicted on 22 June on spurious charges of receiving illegally obtained goods and "violence or intimidation against a state official" and sentenced to one year's imprisonment and three months' "correctional work" outside the prison. As he had already been imprisoned for almost a year he was immediately ... Continue Reading>>
Iranian scholar released on bail
According to reports from Amnesty International, Emadeddin Baghi, prominent Iranian scholar, journalist and human rights activist, was released on bail of 2,000 million Tomans (US$200,000) on Wednesday 23rd June. Emadeddin Baghi, an Iranian scholar and journalist, was arrested at his home on December 28th 2009. Baghi was reportedly held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, without access to ... Continue Reading>>
Iranian physicist murdered
Dr. Massoud Alimohammadi was the victim of a targeted murder in Iran on January 12, 2010. The government of Iran alleges that he was assassinated by Israel and the United States due to his participation in Iran’s nuclear program. According to the journal Science, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Alimohammadi’s field of study was quantum physics, a field ... Continue Reading>>
Pro-democracy Syrian medical professionals complete prison terms
Syrian dentist Ahmad To’meh and medical doctors Walid al-Bunni, Feda’a al-Horani, and Yasser al-‘Eiti were released after having served 30 months in prison for their involvement with the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change—an organization comprised of representatives of opposition political parties and pro-democracy groups in Syria. On October 29, 2008, ... Continue Reading>>