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Omid Kokabee, a physicist convicted of espionage in Iran, has been granted freedom on parole, his lawyer announced on 29 August. It could be the end of a five-year-long struggle for the Iranian scientist, who has said all along that he was punished for refusing to help a covert nuclear-weapons programme.

Kokabee, who is now 34 years old, was working on his PhD thesis in Spain and in the United States when he was jailed in Tehran in early 2011 while attempting to fly back to the United States after visiting his native country. He was later convicted for “illegal earnings” and "communication with a hostile government", accusations which are tantamount to spying.

Kokabee maintained his innocence and later stated that he had been persecuted for refusing to cooperate with a nuclear military programme in Iran.

[...] In a separate case, Shahram Amiri, another Iranian physicist allegedly related to the country's nuclear programme and accused of espionage, was executed earlier this month in Iran.