Check out this great article from Paul Grondahl at the Albany Times-Union about the Alaeis:

Forum a chance to urge freedom

Supporters of doctors jailed in Iran seek to rally support for their release

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer

First published: Friday, February 12, 2010

ALBANY — Dr. Kamiar Alaei, a University at Albany public health doctoral student and an internationally recognized AIDS physician, remains confined after 18 months in an Iranian prison with his brother, Arash, also an AIDS doctor.

On Monday, supporters will have an opportunity to press for their release during a session at the United Nations, which coincides with an appeal from the brothers’ lawyer and a lobbying campaign.

The brothers, who ran AIDS clinics in Iran for several years that offered treatment to IV drug users, were sentenced last year to 3 to 6 years on charges of plotting to overthrow the government after a one-day secret trial in December 2008. They were sent to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison and placed in solitary confinement for months.

The group organizing efforts to win the freedom of the Alaei brothers, Physicians for Human Rights, called the charges trumped-up and politically motivated. The group’s slogan is ”Treating AIDS is not a crime.”

“The Alaeis’ lawyer is hopeful about the appeal, but it’s important that people keep up the campaign to free the doctors because the human rights situation has gotten worse since the elections in June,” said Sarah Kalloch, director of outreach for Physicians for Human Rights.

The group is urging people to contact Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to press for the brothers’ release during the Monday session, at which she can question Iranian officials on the country’s human rights record as part of a U.N. review.

“We want Ambassador Rice to use that opportunity to question the Iranians on the status of the Alaeis because it’s very hard to get information on what’s happening to them,” Kalloch said.

Supporters of the AIDS doctors have been harnessing the power of social networking media such as Facebook and Twitter. They’re hoping to win their release through a large-scale, relentless public opinion campaign, which is credited with helping to win the freedom of journalists Roxana Saberi and Maziar Bahari, who were also held in prison in Tehran. Bahari is a Newsweek reporter and filmmaker from Montreal who made a documentary on the Alaei brothers. He was released from Evin prison last fall after four months, just in time to witness the birth of his first child.

“Maziar continues to be a strong advocate for the release of the Alaeis,” Kalloch said. “Social networking media was very important in his release and we hope use it to free the AIDS doctors.”

Paul Grondahl can be reached at 518-454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl [at] timesunion [dot] com.

How to help

To urge Ambassador Susan Rice to press Iranian leaders for the release of the Alaei brothers during a Monday U.N. session, call her office at (212) 415-4062.

More about the campaign to win the AIDS doctors’ release can be found on the Background page, as well as earlier blog posts.