TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s judiciary spokesman has said that an Iranian graduate student studying at the University of Texas who is in jail in Tehran, has been hospitalized for surgery outside prison.
Iranian state TV quotes Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi Sunday as saying Omid Kokabee, who studied optics in the physics department at the University of Texas, was serving a 10-year prison term on charges of having “relations with a hostile country” and receiving “illegitimate funds.”
Ejehi said Kokabee is “guilty of espionage” but is receiving treatment outside of prison. Kokabee was arrested in February 2011. The nature of his surgery was not publicized.
Though Iran and the United States have no diplomatic relations, many Iranian students apply to study in the U.S. every year.