Doctors Kamiar and Arash Alaei are prisoners of conscience who have been unfairly tried and jailed for their global AIDS prevention work, according to World Medical Association president Dr. Yoram Blachar. The WMA sent letters today to President Ahmadinejad, the Iranian judiciary and the ministry of information petitioning them to release the two doctors.

Dr. Blachar expressed concern that the Alaeis’s secretive trial did not allow them to refute government charges that their international AIDS work amounted to communication with an enemy government.

Like Amnesty International, we consider them prisoners of conscience, as they appear to havebeen imprisoned solely in relation to their work with international and specifically US institutions in the field of HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment.

We are deeply concerned that Dr Arash Alaei and Dr Kamiar Alaei were tried on 31 December in proceedings that fell far short of international standards for fair trial, as the evidence against them was not fully disclosed to the two men and their defence, and they did not have the right to call and examine witnesses.

In addition, Dr. Blachar urges Iranian authorities to respect the human dignity of the doctors until their release is secured.

We are therefore asking for the immediate release of Arash and Kamiar Alaei, as their imprisonment appears to be politically motivated and related to their international contacts in the context of their work on HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment.

We are also calling on the authorities to ensure that Dr Arash Alaei and Dr Kamiar Alaei are not tortured or otherwise ill‐treated. WMA condemns strongly torture as a flagrant violation of human dignity and human rights that cannot be justified under any political, military, religious or other cause.

Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei have been detained since June 2008 in Tehran’s Evin prison. On Dec. 31, they were sentenced to six and three years’ imprisonment respectively, for “cooperating with an enemy government.” Prior to their arrest, they orchestrated Iran’s first harm reduction programs,  spoke at health conferences globally and trained doctors in their region.