Health professionals, human rights activists, and journalists alike have been demanding an explanation from Iranian President Ahmadinejad for the unjust detention of Doctors Kamiar and Arash Alaei since the brothers’ arrest in June. Prior to Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York City for the UN General Assembly in September, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin wrote:

If [Ahmadinejad] holds a news conference, he will, of course, be challenged on Iran’s suspect nuclear program and his unrelenting rhetoric about Israel. But here’s a question that might get at the Iranian president’s vision for his country:

“Why have you jailed two Iranian doctors who pioneered the treatment of Iranian victims of HIV/AIDS?”

Kamiar and Arash Alaei, who are brothers, worked a near miracle by starting a broad AIDS awareness and treatment program in an Islamic republic that emphasizes a puritan image.

Rubin proposed that it was perhaps Dr. Kamiar Alaei’s “health diplomacy” project, which arranged exchanges between American and Iranian medical students, that sparked Iranian officials’ fears of expanded U.S.-Iranian engagement.

Or maybe Mr. Ahmadinejad is worried that his own public may be getting restless, given nearly 30 percent inflation… Yet none of this explains arresting the doctors Alaei.

However, when Ahmadinejad was asked about the detention of the Alaeis in meetings with U.S. representatives, he evaded the subject, as the Albany Times-Union reports:

Dr. Kamiar Alaei

Ahmadinejad did not talk about Kamiar even though a question about his detention was posed in writing.

Iranian officials had previously stated that the Alaeis were fomenting a ‘velvet revolution’ by collaborating with foreign academics, an act which is not an internationally recognized crime. PHR joins a coalition of human rights organizations and medical professionals in calling on President Ahmadinejad to either release the Doctors Alaei or to produce legitimate charges against them.