In an ’urgent action’, Amnesty International issued a statement saying, Iranian physicist Omid Kokabee, serving a 10-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison, is in urgent need of medical care, which the authorities have refused. He is suffering from a number of health problems, including kidney stones and heart palpitations, exacerbated by the poor conditions in which he is held. He is a prisoner of conscience.
Omid Kokabee, aged 32, has been examined by the prison medical clinic doctors and dentist and told by them that he needs further care outside the prison, but the authorities have either rejected, or left unanswered, his several requests for outside medical care.
Amnesty says, Omid Kokabee’s health has deteriorated since August, when he was transferred from Section 350 to the Quarantine area of Section seven, which is in a basement. There, he has been kept in a small windowless cell and all prisoners in this unit are denied access to the prison courtyard for exercise.
Omid Kokabee has suffered recently from heart palpitations, shortness of breath, pain and pressure on the left side of his chest, and “migratory” joint pain (pain that moves to other joints in the body). For his kidneys and heart palpitations he requires diagnostic testing which can only be done outside prison. He has also been having stomach pains.
On Thursday, in an open letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, 18 physics Nobel laureates called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of Iranian physicist and prisoner of conscience, Omid Kokabee, according to a statement by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.