The overwhelming show of support by hundreds of concerned individuals who rallied at Iranian embassies on Tuesday and called for the release of the Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei continues to captivate media attention.

Vigils for the Global Day of Action on behalf of the Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei were held Tuesday at the Iranian Interests Section in DC, the United Nations in New York and locations in 20 other countries. Radio Free Europe reports:

Vigils were held in such far-flung locations as Kabul and Rome, Bangkok and Buenos Aires, and Nairobi and New York City… Participants demanded the release of the doctors, saying that “treating AIDS is not a crime.” According to PHR, more than 5,000 people from 130 countries have so far signed an online petition demanding the release of the Alaei brothers.

The Kaiser Foundation’s Daily HIV/AIDS report quoted PHR’s Jonathan Hutson as he mentioned the similarities between the cases of the Drs. Alaei and that of Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who was recently released:

Jonathan Hutson—a spokesperson for Physicians for Human Rights, which is leading a campaign for the brothers’ release—said, “The release of Ms. Saberi has shifted the world’s attention to the plight of others who are likewise jailed in Iran on trumped-up charges.”

The Alaeis were jailed in June 2008 on false charges of conspiracy to overthrow the Iranian government, allegations that stem from their collaboration with international health groups. Allafrica.com also quotes Hutson as saying:

This is not an issue of politics, but of global health. The only battle they were engaged in is the public health battle to prevent and treat the deadly epidemic of AIDS. They need to be allowed to return to their lifesaving work.

Tuesday’s Global Day of Action on behalf of the Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei turned out hundreds of concerned doctors, activists and students demanding an end to the Alaeis’ wrongful imprisonment at vigils in the U.S. and 20 other countries.

The vigils in New York and in D.C. drew broadcast media attention from the BBC, Washington TV, NPR; a number of media outlets also covered the efforts of PHR and our allies after the fact.

The Albany Times-Union’s Paul Grondahl quoted PHR’s Jonathan Hutson connecting the case of the recently-released journalist Roxana Saberi and the Drs. Alaei, who remain detained despite being arrested on similarly false charges.

“The release of Ms. Saberi has shifted the world’s attention to the plight of others who are likewise jailed in Iran on trumped-up charges,” said Jonathan Hutson, spokesman for Physicians for Human Rights, the group leading the campaign for the Alaei brothers’ release.
“We are asking Iran to show Islamic kindness and to free these doctors,” Hutson said.

A blog post in Nature magazine also highlighted the similarities between the two cases. The Alaeis were charged with cooperating with a hostile state for their participation in U.S. health conferences.

Saberi’s conviction for “cooperating with a hostile state” was overthrown on the grounds that the United States is not hostile to Iran, according to an editorial in the Boston Globe. The reversal has diplomatic overtones, writes the Globe, which should also apply to the doctors.

An article in the Inter-Press Service describes how the Alaeis were jailed for no cause other than working with international colleagues while expanding AIDS treatment in Iran, a feat for which they were once recognized by the World Health Organization.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which organised the protest, says that the doctors are only guilty of sharing their knowledge and expertise as HIV physicians. “The Alaei brothers were arrested for doing good medicine,” Peter Witzler from PHR told IPS.

Even behind bars, Arash and Kamiar Alaei are continuing their work. They have volunteered to work as physicians in Tehran’s Evin Prison hospital, and are assisting local staff in treating patients with HIV and tuberculosis.

Washington TV interviewed PHR Washington Director John Bradshaw at the scene of the D.C. vigil at the Iranian Interests Section for a video report.

John Bradshaw, director of PHR, said that the Alaeis were arrested only for their work with the international medical community.

“Just for doing that, for having contact with outsiders, the regime arrested them and said they were trying to overthrow the government – and it’s really an illegitimate charge,” he told Washington TV.

The doctors’ first appeal was denied, and last week their lawyer filed their final appeal. We hope that our combined global efforts yesterday have made an impact on Iranian policymakers as they evaluate the Alaeis’ case for the final time. Thank you to everyone who took part at Iranian Embassies around the world or online at our virtual vigil, for making Global Alaei Day a huge success.

Dr. Barbara Zeller, a member of the Committee on Human Rights of Scientists of the New York Academy of Sciences, is just one of the many concerned activists and academics who will be joining Physicians for Human Rights for the Global Day of Action on behalf of the Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei today, May 12. Groups in over 16 countries will stand together in solidarity to urge Iran to release these two AIDS researchers after a nearly a year of wrongful detention.

Last year, Henry Greenberg, chair of Committee on Human Rights of Scientists, released a statement denouncing the detention of the Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei and calling for their release.

Mr. Greenberg wrote:

For more than 20 years, these doctors have played a key role in putting HIV/AIDS on the national health care agenda in Iran. They have worked closely with government, religious leaders and neighboring countries to support prevention and treatment programs. Neither of the men is known to have any involvement in political activities.

See our Resources page to learn how you can participate in the Global Day of Action, or sign onto our virtual vigil to participate online. We hope to see you!

Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei, pioneers of harm reduction and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in Iran, have been detained for almost a year and sentenced to prison in Tehran. The Iranian government says they used trips to AIDS conferences worldwide to foment a velvet revolution.

We say: TREATING AIDS IS NOT A CRIME.

On May 12, 2009, be a part of the Global Day of Action for the Alaeis and attend our vigil at the Iranian Interests Section in Washington D.C., located at the Embassy of Pakistan (2209 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington, D.C.)

The Alaeis’ first appeal was denied—they are on their last appeal and need worldwide support. People like you from across the globe—including Ukraine, Argentina, the US, Mexico, Russia, Argentina, Kenya, the Netherlands and Thailand—are organizing events for May 12. Here’s how you can take action on Alaei Day:

1. Attend our Vigil: At noon on May 12, join PHR, students and activists at the Iranian Interests Section to show Iran that the Alaeis’ detention won’t be ignored. Bring your friends, spread the word to your networks and invite people through our event on Facebook. Or visit our virtual vigil page on IranFreeTheDocs.org and join people from all over the world demanding the Alaeis’ freedom, which will be streamed live on the site.

2. Sign on: Sign the Petition asking Iran to free the Alaeis and forward it on to colleagues and friends.

3. Make A Statement: Urge your organization to make a statement calling for the Alaeis’ release. You can download our sample statement here and send it to Iranian policymakers.

Contact Olga Khazan at PHR with any questions: okhazan [at] phrusa [dot] org.

Check out the Global Day Resources page for more information and resources. The Iranian Government’s prosecution of the Drs. Alaei has a chilling effect on the international exchange of scientific knowledge that is so essential in the fight for human rights and against global epidemics like HIV/AIDS.

Stand up today and demand their release.

An Iranian appeals court upheld the jail sentences for Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei, according to an Agence France-Presse report in Tuesday’s Qatar Tribune. The doctors’ lawyer, Massoud Shafiie, said the brothers’ three- and six-year terms were confirmed in a hurried decision on March 18. Shafiie added that the one-day court date did not allow enough time for the court to fully consider the case, sparking speculation once again that Iranian officials ignored clear evidence of the Alaeis’ innocence.

“It should have taken much longer to study in detail the arguments against the verdict. Therefore this can’t be an appropriate decision,” Shafiie said.

Fortunately, there is still hope for these renowned AIDS doctors. Shafiie intends to file another appeal to Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi.

“I am somehow sure that the verdict will change,” Shafiie said.

The Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei were working globally to strengthen HIV/AIDS prevention and care systems in Iran when they were arrested last summer on allegations of espionage. They have been detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison since then. On May 12, activists, medical students and concerned citizens will participate in vigils and embassy visits worldwide to call for the Alaeis’ release.

The Czech Presidency of the European Union denounced Iran’s detention of the Drs. Alaei in a statement released today, the 33rd Anniversary of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Describing a trend of “increasing constraints on Iranian citizens’ freedom of expression and association,” the EU urged Iran to end human rights violations against students, journalists and human rights advocates.

Human rights defenders, journalists, students, trade unionists and others peacefully expressing their views or opinions are often charged under the vague auspices of public security….

In this respect, the European Union urgently calls on Iran to revoke the sentences against two HIV specialists, brothers Arash and Kamiar Alaei, sentenced to prison for six and three years respectively.

The statement also urged the dropping of legal charges against journalists, bloggers and students, as well as the reopening of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, which was shuttered by Tehran authorities in December.

The EU also commended the positive achievements of Iranian citizens in the fields of medicine, culture and human rights, but it “expresses concern about the Iranian government’s violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a signatory.”

For the Alaeis, today’s ICCPR anniversary marks another day in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. As the doctors have committed no internationally-recogized crime, PHR continues to call on Iran to uphold its international commitments and release them.

Iran’s high HIV/AIDS rate is not only a health and societal problem, it’s a political one as well. Official Iranian numbers estimate that over 18,000 of the country’s people are living with AIDS. But a Tehran journalist writing under the pseudonym Mina Rasheed reports that the figure might be a low estimate because of stigma surrounding the disease.

“According to a statement by the World Health Organisation, we have to multiply this figure four or five times to reach the real figure of those infected with AIDS in Iran,” warned Masoud Mardani, a member of the AIDS National Committee.

Unfortunately, Rasheed writes, HIV/AIDS has also been politicized through the detention of Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei.

AIDS, however, is not just a social taboo; it has also become a political and security issue. In June 2008, two brothers who were pioneers in the fight against AIDS in Iran were arrested and charged with having contacts with “hostile governments”.

The Alaeis’ detention has hampered Iran’s capacity to meet the needs of AIDS patients and fight the spread of the disease. The Alaeis’ groundbreaking work included harm-reduction programs, regional health worker training sessions and participation in international health conferences.

The brothers had also written a five-year plan for tackling AIDS on a national level – a first for Iran.

Physicians for Human Rights has led a coalition of activists calling for the Alaei doctors’ release. PHR members have called attention to the case through a vigil and at the August 2008 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, where Dr. Arash Alaei was scheduled to speak. In addition, thousands of concerned citizens, as well as Nobel Laureates, MacArthur Genius Grant recipients and international medical leaders have written letters to Iranian officials on the Alaeis’ behalf. You can join the movement by signing our petition.

The jailing of the Drs. Alaei could stifle progress in HIV/AIDS treatment in Iran, according to a recent Lancet article on the conviction of the two Iranian doctors.

Kristen Elisabeth Solberg quotes PHR’s Jonathan Hutson:

“Public health will suffer in Iran and around the world,” said Jonathan Hutson, chief communications officer of US-based Physicians for Human Rights. “Training people in public health work, engaging with international non-governmental organizations, and attending conferences abroad are not crimes but good medicine”, said Hutson.

Solberg also notes that the convictions could be part of an Iranian government crackdown against Western ties, even when such collaboration brings about scientific advancement. Previously, Iran’s religious and government leaders had publicly approved of the Doctors Alaei’s development of harm reduction programs.

The conviction could signal a shift on HIV/AIDS; a warning against ties with the West; or a crackdown on activists ahead of June presidential elections, advocates say. Some campaigners remain hopeful that Iran’s government will respond to the international outcry from health professionals and release the brothers.

Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei have been detained since June 2008 in Tehran’s Evin prison. On Dec. 31, 2008, they were sentenced to six and three years’ imprisonment respectively, for “cooperating with an enemy government.” PHR has led the campaign to call for the Alaei doctors’ release.

The detention of the Doctors Kamiar and Arash Alaei may be part of a larger crackdown on Iranian human-rights activists and those with U.S. ties, according to an feature on NPR’s Morning Edition today.

In recent months, Iranian officials have interrogated a member of the National Academy of Sciences, denied visas to visiting foreign athletes and shuttered Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi’s Human Rights Defenders office. Given these and other actions, it’s clear that the Alaei incident has little to do with the doctors’ alleged crimes. Instead, it is the result of a precarious political situation in Iran:

“In [the] Ahmadinejad administration, the pressure on all the dissidents and the opposition has intensified,” [said Ibrahim Yazdi, head of the Freedom Movement of Iran.] “Whenever the government feels weak inside, then it feels threatened by any move. Therefore, they cannot tolerate even a small gathering.”

NPR reports that the detention of the Alaeis is likely an extension of the larger human rights crackdown in Iran.

“The way that they are treating the Alaei brothers also shows that they are even either insecure, and they don’t feel comfortable with their activities, or that there is some personal clash against them,” [Yadzi said].

PHR and a coalition of concerned medical workers and organizations call for an end to the politically-motivated detention of the Alaeis. Only then will the doctors be able to continue their important work treating Iran’s people and advancing AIDS medicine worldwide.

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.

In 2006, Iran had one of the world’s finest harm reduction programs, reaching even neglected populations such as prisoners and injecting drug users. Unfortunately, since the pioneers of Iran’s AIDS treatment programs, Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei, were sentenced to prison, that may no longer be the case. What’s more, the doctors’ arrest stands to block a valuable channel for soft diplomacy between two nations whose relations have been tense at best. A Nature magazine editorial explains:

Tehran’s Revolutionary Court last week sentenced the brothers Kamiar and Arash Alaei to, respectively, three- and six-year jail terms in the city’s notorious Evin prison on charges of being US stooges bent on fomenting a velvet revolution to overthrow the state.

One of the acts that apparently attracted suspicion was the brothers’ participation alongside US government officials in two US–Iranian health-diplomacy round tables held in the United States in 2006 and 2007. The meetings were run by the Aspen Institute, a non-governmental organization founded in 1950 to provide an impartial international forum on major policy issues. The chair of one of the sessions introduced it proudly as one of the “first formal dialogues for almost 25 years” between Iran and the United States.

***

Such dialogue — ’smart power’ — should be encouraged by all sides, because cooperation in the relatively apolitical areas of medicine and science keeps open rare avenues of back-channel diplomacy. Unfortunately, ‘dumb power’ is currently prevailing. The action of the Iranian judiciary in this case can have only a chilling effect on such activities, and there have been ill-considered moves elsewhere.

Even Iranian President Ahmadinejad had lauded the Alaei’s work at a Columbia University talk in 2007, describing the doctors as “shining torches who shed light in order to remove darkness and the ambiguities around us in guiding humanity out of ignorance and perplexity.” If that’s the case, then he should release these visionaries from their senseless imprisonment.

President Ahmadinejad. Your country’s HIV-prevention programme has won respect in the Muslim world and beyond. As you said at Columbia University, the open scientific and medical dialogue needed to progress in issues such as the fight against AIDS must be above the contemporary realpolitik of broader political issues. We urge you today to request the appropriate authorities to review the cases of Arash and Kamiar Alaei so that the truth may prevail.

The Dec. 31 trial of doctors Kamiar and Arash Alaei was shrouded in secrecy, denying the two HIV/AIDS doctors of even the most basic human rights. Nature’s Declan Butler writes:

The Alaeis were arrested last June, and their detention and trial were “unfair even by the draconian standards of Iran’s penal code”, says Jonathan Hutson, a spokesman for Physicians for Human Rights, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hutson points out that the six-month detention itself breached human rights, as Iran failed to meet its international legal obligations to explain the arrests, or to allow the men access to lawyers or the right to contest their detention before a judge.

And although Iranian law prohibits anyone from being detained for more than four months without charge, the state filed the charge of communicating with an “enemy government” only in December. Moreover, at the trial the prosecution indicted the men on new secret charges, now known to be the plot charges, denying them the right to defend themselves against these accusations and their right to due process.

Furthermore, the purported confessions used by Iranian prosecutors were likely extorted, according to sources close to PHR.

Last week, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency cited an Iranian counter-intelligence official as saying that the brothers and two other unnamed individuals had confessed to working on behalf of the United States to overthrow the state, and that these statements would be televised. “Given interrogation techniques and duress known to exist in other cases like this one in Iran, any purported confession must be viewed as tainted and unreliable,” says Hutson.

In light of these gross violations of due process and the utter lack of evidence against the Alaeis, we urge the government of Iran to release the doctors immediately.

The jailing of Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei is likely to have a chilling impact on the progress of HIV/AIDS treatment. The two doctors were sentenced this month for their ties to the United States, which consisted of participating in international medical exchange programs. What’s more, the doctors’ detention is likely to deter other Iranian global health researchers from looking to the West for collaboration and innovation.

PHR’s Sarah Kalloch speaks both on the false accusations against the Alaeis and their important harm reduction work in a recent interview with Public Radio International:

The world needs the expertise coming out of Iran in terms of harm reduction programs.  Iran has the best programs on this in the world.  The United States needs information on this, Russia, all over the world we need their expertise.  And to imprison Kamiar and Arash for sharing their expertise, for sharing scientific knowledge coming out of Iran is really tragic.

There are certainly a great number of Iranian physicians and nurses and medical personnel who are doing great work.  And the Alaeis’ are part of a wonderful system; however what we are afraid of is that this arrest will put a chilling effect on every kind of public health exchange coming out of Iran.  And in fact, some of the most renowned world leaders on HIV/AIDS have spoken out in support of the Alaeis and have encouraged Iran to release them.

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.

In the wake of devastating news of the sentencing of Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei, media reports about their tainted confessions continue to break.

The Daily Kos featured a recent PHR press release citing the mother of the Drs. Alaei in the blog’s “Health Care Friday” roundup:

According to a press release issued today from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the mother of Arash and Kamiar Alaei recently broke her silence in an interview with Iranian news media. The press release stated that the mother told Rooz Online [link]  that her sons had been held for 63 days in solitary confinement and that she feared that they might be tortured to coerce false confessions on camera.

The Albany Times-Union’s Marc Parry provides a follow-up to the paper’s previous coverage of the Alaei case, highlighting the conditions under which the Alaeis were coerced into making their “confessions.”

Physicians for Human Rights, citing unnamed “sources close to the trial,” claimed one of the brothers had agreed under duress to make a videotaped statement prepared by Iranian authorities.

If he read the statement, he was promised that both he and his brother would be set free, according to the advocacy group.

***

“Any purported confessions should be considered to be made under duress and would therefore be tainted and unreliable as evidence,” said Hutson, whose Cambridge, Mass.-based group has been tracking the case.

Finally, the New Scientist mentions the detrimental consequences of the Alaeis’ imprisonment in a Jan. 21 article:

If the charges discourage Iranian and western scientists from working together, this could pose difficulties outside Iran, as it has public health problems that require close monitoring, including HIV, drug-resistant tuberculosis, H5N1 bird flu and the Ug99 wheat fungus, which threatens global food production.