An article in today’s Boston Globe, Iran charges 2 doctors with Boston ties reports that the government of Iran

had broken up a four-person cell linked to the CIA and the State Department, alleging that the group “recruited and trained people to work with different espionage networks to launch a velvet overthrow of the Iranian government.” Jamshidi did not name any of the members of the alleged cell, but Physicians for Human Rights said it has information that the Alaei brothers were among those charged.

The article goes on to note that

The State Department released a statement this week calling the charges against the doctors “baseless.”

“In the past, Iran has used similar charges to falsely accuse and detain civil society activists and Iranians working to enhance understanding between our two countries,” the statement read. “We urge the government of Iran to adhere to international norms by ending its policy of arbitrarily detaining its citizens or using charges of violating national security as a pretext for targeting any Iranian citizen.”

In a blog post at The Huffington Post, PHR’s Jirair Ratevosian links to a brief item in yesterday’s Tehran Times, in which an Iranian Judiciary spokesman, Ali-Reza Jamshidi, claims that

A gang of saboteurs connected to the U.S. government was recently discovered and destroyed.

and that

the gang was related to the U.S. government and involved in efforts “to bring about a velvet overthrow of the government.”

He added that the gang had four members with Iranian nationality who have been arrested and brought to the court.

Please take a moment today to call the Iranian Mission to the UN, +1-212-687-2020, to express your support for the release of the Doctors Alaei. Tell them Treating AIDS is NOT a Crime!