Court Hearing For Arrested Iranian Scholar To Be Held In US By January End

Tehran, Jan 2, IRNA – Chancellor of Sharif Industrial University Dr Reza Roosta- Azad said that the court hearing for the Iranian university scholar Dr Mojtaba Atarodi will be held by end of January, 2013. The Iranian scholar who is a faculty member of the elite Sharif Industrial University is currently under home arrest in the US. He said the university has set up a website for fans to support the arrested scholar by signing a petition. Some 400 faculty members of Sharif University have already signed the petition while people from other universities are to join the move later, he added. Commenting on news that two American priests are following the release of the arrested Iranian scholar, he said the two priests inspired by humanitarian reasons lobbied with the Iranian government to release the American mountaineers who were arrested inside the Iranian territory. They were asked to do the same about the arrested Iranian scholar in the US, he added, but there has been no clear answers from them yet. According to the chancellor, Sharif faculty members formed a committee last year to provide the 400,000 dollars needed to turn the verdict of Atarodi from imprisonment to home arrest. Lobbies were also made with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran which acts as the US interest section in Iran on the issue but Washington failed to show the necessary cooperation, he noted. Dr Atarodi who is a member of the university’s electricity faculty was detained in December 2011 in the US where he was active in purchasing laboratory equipment. He travelled to the US to take part in an annual scientific gathering and also meet with his PHD advisor. He suffered two heart attacks during the first few months of his arrest./end