The Albany Times-Union denounced Iran’s justice system as “hostile to human rights” in an editorial on the case of the Drs. Alaei yesterday.

According to the authors, the jailing of Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei for their engagement with Western doctors shows a disregard for “the value of scientific curiosity that President Obama hailed in his inauguration speech.”

Dr. Kamiar Alaei was doing research and providing treatment for a disease that Iranian propagandists can barely acknowledge. A nation where the president himself insists that homosexuality doesn’t exist and where discussion of sex, drugs and AIDS comes so uneasily can be a hostile place for people like Dr. Alaei, who has helped to establish Iran’s first HIV/STD and drug-use prevention and care center.

Still, there’s no evidence that we’re aware of that Dr. Alaei was conspiring against the Islamic system of government, as he’s now been convicted of doing. What seems more likely is that an Iranian citizen who had been studying in the United States is a victim of injustice.

The editorial argues that the announcing of the Alaeis’ years-long jail sentences just before the inauguration was a power play by Iranian officials.

Such a belligerent tone continues to this day, with a shrill warning to the Obama administration to stop spying on Iran.

In an era of AIDS and other complex diseases, medical knowledge sharing across borders could potentially save lives and break new ground in treatment methods. Instead, the jailing of the Alaies for working with doctors globally only serves to heighten U.S.-Iran tensions.

What Tehran calls an intelligence war is actually a confrontation over human rights and fair play. Ending the tensions will be daunting and complicated.

Reducing them, though, will be altogether easier. Iran must explain to the world why Kamiar Alaei and Arash Alaei belong in the dungeon known as Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Dr. Kamiar Alaei is a PhD student at SUNY Albany. He and his brother Arash were instrumental in developing some of Iran’s first harm-reduction programs for HIV/AIDS patients. They have been detained since June of 2008, and their sentences were handed down earlier this month.