CCS wrote a letter to the King of Bahrain protesting the arrest of Professor Masaud Jahromi, Chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Ahlia University. Read the letter: ... Continue Reading>>
Weisfeiler Case submitted to Human Rights Commission in Chile
In 2010, Olga Weisfeiler and her son Lev arrived in Chile to resubmit Boris Weisfeiler's case to the recently opened human rights commission, Comisión Asesora par la calificatión de Detenidos Desaparacidos, Ejecutados Politicos y Victimas de Prisión Politica y Tortura, in short La Comisión, for evaluation. The Commission's work was presented to the President of Chile on August 18, 2011. No date is ... Continue Reading>>
Follow-up on the Arrest and Trial of Math Professor Pham Minh Hoang
CCS wrote a follow-up letter to Prime Minister Nguen Tan Dung of Viet Nam joining other human rights organizations in urging the government to release Professor Pham Minh Hoang. Read the letter: ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Requests the Release of Iranian Graduate Student
CCS writes an open letter to Iran''s Ayatollah Khamene’i requesting release from jail of Omid Kokabee, Iranian graduate student in optics at the University of Texas, who had returned to Iran to visit family. Read our letter: July 14, 2011 His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i The Supreme Leader, The Islamic Republic of Iran Tehran Your Eminence, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hoseyni Khamene’I: ... Continue Reading>>
Chinese Dissident Released from Prison
Hu Jia, a prominent Chinese dissident whose activism on behalf of the environment and AIDS sufferers landed him in prison for the last three and a half years, was released in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, June 18, and returned to his home in Beijing. CCS has been advocating for his release, supporting his family''s request for medical parole, in view of Hu Jia's serious liver ailment. ... Continue Reading>>
French-Algerian Physicist in Preventive Detention in France Since 2009
Adlène Hicheur, a high-energy physicist who has worked on the world’s largest particle collider, has been held in a French prison under suspicion of terrorism for more than a year. CCS wrote a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, urging him to investigate the circumstances of Dr. Hicheur’s detention. ... Continue Reading>>
Yakov Alpert, 1911-2010
Yakov Alpert, a pioneer in serveral fields of radio and space plasma physics, died on October 17, 2010 in Boston at the age of 99. Alpert participated in Sputnik I and many other Soviet satellite projects in the 1960s and 1970s. He became a Russian refusenik when he applied for an exit visa in 1975. Like all dissident scientists in the U.S.S.R., he lost his job and the right to work in his ... Continue Reading>>
Professor Abdul Jail Al-Singace Re-arrested in Bahrain
After welcoming Dr. Al-Singace's release from jail earlier in March, in response to protests, CCS wrote again to express our deep disappointment in learning of his re-arrest only days later, especially in view of his poor health. Here is the text of our letter: ... Continue Reading>>
Vietnamese Mathematician Pham Minh Hoang Arrested
Vietnamese mathematician Pham Minh Hoang was arrested and accused of sedition after publishing blogs criticizing the environmental impact of bauxite extraction. The Committee of Concerned Scientists wrote a letter to the government of Vietnam, protesting his arrest on charges of sedition. ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Protests the Arrest and Conviction of Boris Nemtsov
Dr. Boris Nemtsov, a physicist and former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, was arrested on December 31, 2010, while participating in a peaceful rally in Moscow. A court sentenced him to 15 days in jail for "disobeying police instructions." According to news reports, Nemtsov tried to appeal his sentence as violating his human rights to a fair trial but the court refused to hear ... Continue Reading>>