On January 30, 2011, Omid Kokabee, 28, was about to board a flight to the United States at Tehran airport. He was returning to his doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin after spending a winter break with his family. Halfway through the gate he was stopped by Iranian intelligence officers, taken to Tehran’s Evin prison and placed in a solitary confinement.

During the 15-month pre-trial period Kokabee was not allowed any contact with the outside world. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison “for communicating with hostile government (meaning the United States) and illegal earnings (meaning his doctoral student stipend at UT-Austin)”.