Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alaei were arrested in June 2008 and wrongfully convicted in January 2009 on charges of communicating with an enemy government. The Iranian government used the doctors’ travel to international AIDS conferences and meetings with colleagues in the United States as a basis for the charges.

“PHR, along with other members of the health and human rights community, has been working tirelessly to secure the release of Arash and Kamiar for more than three years,” said Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of PHR. “Doctors and other health professionals all over the world often face persecution for simply doing their job, and PHR has a long history of advocating on behalf of these doctors for justice and accountability.”

PHR, together with other doctors and public health workers in dozens of countries around the world, organized Global Days of Action and contacted Iranian embassies to press for the release of the Alaei brothers. PHR organized the campaign to free the Alaeis and hosted iranfreethedocs.org, where supporters from around the world posted videos and messages of support.

“Knowing that PHR and its members were working on our behalf sustained us when all seemed lost,” said Dr. Kamiar Alaei. “PHR is the one organization that uses the expertise and voice of doctors such as Arash and me to help protect human rights around the world.”

In June, Dr. Kamiar Alaei accepted the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights on behalf of both brothers. In July, at the annual International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome, Dr. Kamiar Alaei spoke for the first time since his release about his work at a press conference hosted by PHR and International AIDS Society.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent, non-profit organization that uses medical and scientific expertise to investigate human rights violations and advocate for justice, accountability, and the health and dignity of all people. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe:

• 1988 – First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
• 1996 – Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
• 1996 – Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
• 1997 – Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
• 2003 – Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
• 2004 – Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
• 2005 – Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay
• 2010 – Presented the first evidence showing that CIA medical personnel engaged in human
  experimentation on prisoners in violation of the Nuremberg Code and other provisions

I want to thank everybody around the world who campaigned for the release of my brother and me. They did a wonderful job during the past three years, and without the support of Physicians for Human Rights and the Coalition to Free the Alaeis, it is highly likely we would not be celebrating Arash’s release today.

]]> http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/08/29/dr-arash-is-freed/feed/ 0 http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/25/iranian-aids-doctors-continued-work-behind-bars/ http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/25/iranian-aids-doctors-continued-work-behind-bars/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:34:06 +0000 Susannah Sirkin http://iranfreethedocs.org/?p=1349 Nature.com today posts an interview by Priya Shetty with Dr. Kamiar Alaei, given during the recent International AIDS Society meetings in Rome.

Excerpt:

Q) Did you ever think you would be in prison one day yourself?
A) Never. We never expected to be arrested. The worst scenario we imagined if the new government was not happy with our work was that they would tell us not to continue. We would then have asked them how they wanted us to implement or design our programmes. We would have adapted.

The interview highlights both the important work the Alaeis did prior to their detention, and the work they continued in prison. Please sign the petition to demand the release of Dr. Arash Alaei.

]]> http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/25/iranian-aids-doctors-continued-work-behind-bars/feed/ 0 http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/join-our-social-media-campaign-to-help-free-dr-arash-alaei/ http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/join-our-social-media-campaign-to-help-free-dr-arash-alaei/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:11:58 +0000 Jared Voss http://iranfreethedocs.org/?p=1336 Already signed the petition? Thank you. Join our social media campaign to help free Dr. Arash Alaei:

• Share on Twitter: Call on #Iran leader @khamenei_ir to free imprisoned AIDS doctor Arash Alaei immediately bit.ly/ou4pAR
• Share on Facebook: Today is a Global Day of Action for Dr. Arash Alaei. Sign the petition urging the Supreme Leader of Iran to immediately release the imprisoned AIDS doctor! http://bit.ly/ou4pAR
• Share via email: Today is a Global Day of Action for Dr. Arash Alaei. PHR and its supporters are appealing for the immediate release of the internationally renowned HIV/AIDS doctor from Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alaei were wrongfully convicted in January 2009 on charges of communicating with the enemy government. Last year, Dr. Kamiar Alaei was released and today he will speak at the annual International AIDS Society Conference and make a public appeal for the release of his brother.

Please take a moment today to sign the petition urging the Supreme Leader of Iran to immediately release the imprisoned AIDS doctor! See the background page for more information.

]]> http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/join-our-social-media-campaign-to-help-free-dr-arash-alaei/feed/ 0 http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/sign-on-letter-calling-for-the-release-of-dr-arash-alaei/ http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/sign-on-letter-calling-for-the-release-of-dr-arash-alaei/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:38:20 +0000 Jared Voss http://iranfreethedocs.org/?p=1331 On July 1, 2011, prominent physicians and organizations delivered a private appeal (pdf) to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran calling for Dr. Arash Alaei’s release. We have not received a response from the Iranian authorities so please sign the public petition today!

]]> http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/sign-on-letter-calling-for-the-release-of-dr-arash-alaei/feed/ 0 http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/phr-announces-global-day-of-action-for-dr-arash-alaei/ http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/phr-announces-global-day-of-action-for-dr-arash-alaei/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:09:30 +0000 Jared Voss http://iranfreethedocs.org/?p=1320 Health professionals, scientists and citizens call for immediate release of jailed doctor in Iran

Cambridge, Mass. – Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today announced a Global Day of Action for Dr. Arash Alaei during which health professionals, scientists and concerned citizens will appeal to the Iranian authorities for the immediate release of the internationally renowned HIV/AIDS doctor. During today’s Global Day of Action, PHR and its supporters will engage in a social media and viral campaign to call for the release of Dr. Arash Alaei from Iranian prison.

Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alaei are internationally renowned HIV/AIDS physicians who were arrested in June 2008 and wrongfully convicted in January 2009 on charges of communicating with an enemy government. The Iranian government used the doctors’ travel to international AIDS conferences and meetings with colleagues in the United States as a basis for the charges. In late 2010, Dr. Kamiar Alaei was released following 870 days in prison in Iran, but Dr. Arash Alaei remains in Evin Prison in Tehran.

On Tuesday, July 19at the annual International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome, PHR and International AIDS Society will convene a press conference with Dr. Kamiar Alaei where he will describe his work and make a public appeal for the release of his imprisoned brother. Moderating the press conference will be Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of PHR.

WHEN

19 July 2011, 10 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

WHERE

IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention
Auditorium del Parco della Musica
Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30
Press Conference Room in the Media Center
Rome, Italy

Sign the petition, which includes as signatories prominent AIDS leaders in medicine, science and education, urging the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, to immediately release Dr. Arash Alaei.

 

MEDIA CONTACT
Megan Prock
Senior Press Officer
mprock [at] phrusa [dot] org
Tel: 617-301-4237
Cell: 617-510-3417

]]> http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/19/phr-announces-global-day-of-action-for-dr-arash-alaei/feed/ 0 http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/18/ias-calls-for-release-of-jonathan-mann-award-winner-from-iran-prison/ http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/18/ias-calls-for-release-of-jonathan-mann-award-winner-from-iran-prison/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:11:26 +0000 Susannah Sirkin http://iranfreethedocs.org/?p=1306 Cross-posted from Blog 4 Global Health, the blog of the Global Health Council’s Policy, Research and Advocacy team. Post by David Jolson.

ROME — In the opening cermonies of the Sixth IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention here last night, Elly Katabira, the international conference chair and current president of the International AIDS Society, decried the continuing imprisonment of Arash Alaei, one of the two Iranian physician-brothers who won the Global Health Council’s Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights at our annual conference last month.

“We, at the IAS, consider human rights for HIV professionals as one of our priorities. This is why I could not be addressing you tonight and not mention our friend doctor Arash Alaei, who has been detained in Iran since June 2008, for the only reason that he was trying to treat HIV-positive people in his home-country. There is no reason why HIV professionals around the world should be in prison only for doing their job, and we, all of us, demand his immediate release from prison.”

The other brother, Dr. Kamiar Alaei, released in October 2010, is here at the conference and will speak at two events on Tuesday — a satellite event organized by the Council and a press conference organized by Physicians for Human Rights where he will call for the release of his brother.

Physicians for Human Rights is planning a global day of action on July 19. They are asking people to sign a petition asking the Islamic Republic of Iran to release Dr. Arash immediately and have set up a website to facilitate that petition.

this profile of the brothers this week.

The New York Times published this profile of the brothers after they received the Jonathan Mann Award.

]]> http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/18/ias-calls-for-release-of-jonathan-mann-award-winner-from-iran-prison/feed/ 0 http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/15/freed-iranian-doctor-speaks-out-on-behalf-of-imprisoned-brother/ http://iranfreethedocs.org/2011/07/15/freed-iranian-doctor-speaks-out-on-behalf-of-imprisoned-brother/#comments Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:13:39 +0000 Kelly Bienhoff http://iranfreethedocs.org/?p=1191 On Tuesday, July 19th, 2011, PHR and International AIDS Society will convene a press conference in Rome, Italy at 10-10:45 a.m., with recently released physician and AIDS program innovator, Dr. Kamiar Alaei. He will describe his work on the widely acclaimed “triangular clinics” he pioneered with his brother in Iran; discuss his experiences in prison between 2008 and 2011; and make a public appeal for the release of his imprisoned brother, Dr. Arash Alaei.

Dr. Kamiar Alaei is former co-founding director of the first triangular clinic in Iran. In June 2011, he received the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights from the Global health Council. He has traveled to Rome to attend the 6th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention from 17-20 July 2011 and advocate for his brother’s release.

Dr. Arash Alaei is the former director of the International Education and Research Cooperation of the Iranian National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

The Alaei brothers were arrested in June 2008 and wrongfully convicted in January 2009 on charges of communicating with an enemy government. Their crime? Traveling to international AIDS conferences and liaising with health workers to find solutions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Kamiar, sentenced to three years, was quietly released in late 2010 after spending 870 days in prison in Iran. Arash, however, was sentenced to six years in prison and today remains imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran after three long years.

Moderating the press conference will be Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights. She has organized human rights investigations and advocated for imprisoned colleagues for more than 25 years at Physicians for Human Rights.

Representatives of the International AIDS Society and the Global Health Council will briefly speak as well.

For media access and credential information, please visit the Media Center page of the IAS Conference website.

For further information contact:

In Boston: Kelly Bienhoff PHR Program Associate kbienhoff [at] phrusa [dot] org +1 617 301 4215

In Rome: Susannah Sirkin PHR Deputy Director ssirkin [at] phrusa [dot] org +1 617 999 9728

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