A great Persian Sufi poet wrote,

You are close to me when your heart is with me, even if you are far away from me.
You are far from me when your heart is not with me, even if you are beside me.

As a result of your support, we are now free and we are safe.

Four months after our arrest, we learned for the first time, via a discreet message from our family that so many of you were campaigning for our release.

Because we were under pressure during our two months of solitary confinement and several months of interrogation, we were led to believe that we were forgotten. When we got the message about your campaign through our family, it was like getting new blood that warmed our hearts and gave us energy to be strong, to tolerate the situation, and not to become broken.

Now that we are released, even though we have lost some of our friends in our country, we have learned that we have thousands of new friends, many of whom we have never met. We’ve had the chance to learn about the numerous letters, petitions, statements, presentations and conferences supporting our case from all over the world.

We appreciate so much your message that “treating AIDS is not a crime.” The campaign activity demonstrated to Iranian officials that thousands of individuals and organizations care about the situations of those people who work to improve the health status of their communities, especially when they face threats and persecution. In our case it was very important that the advocacy came not only from human rights organizations, but also from so many in the academic, medical, public health fields and individuals. We were so heartened to learn about the diversity of the engagement in our cause across geographic, religious, ethnic, cultural and political lines.

Thanks to your efforts, we are rejoicing at being reunited and we want to extend your advocacy by being the voice of the voiceless for others who may face a similar situation to ours. This is at least one way we can pass on the kindness you have shown to us.

We are both currently at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany where we hope to start an interdisciplinary center for health and human rights. We hope to receive your input and advice to make this a reality. We also with our friends plan to initiate a “Prison Alumni – Club Evin” to support one another and advocate for others who remain there.

We learned from our prison experience that if you believe in what you are doing, you must continue your work, whether or not the work is appreciated by your government….and you must do this until the last moment of your life.

We are unable to communicate our full appreciation to all of you since words cannot express our real feelings. But from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for campaigning for our freedom.

With much gratitude,

Arash Alaei
Alaeiarash [at] gmail.com

Kamiar Alaei
Kamiar.alaei [at] yahoo.com

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

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.

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.

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:

Few doctors anywhere in the world have done their country a greater service than the Iranian brothers Arash and Kamiar Alaei. Kamiar, who is 37, is currently living in Albany, N.Y., where he is working on a doctorate in public health. Arash, who is 42, is a resident of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison — where until recently, Kamiar lived as well.

PHR’s efforts on the brothers’ behalf are also noted:

Physicians for Human Rights organized prominent AIDS experts in 80 countries to sign petitions, write letters and lobby for them. The brothers did not know about any of this. Arash didn’t even realize that Kamiar had been arrested until several months later, when they went to trial.

Read more at the blog.

PHR salutes the courage and conviction of the two brothers on receiving this prestigious award in recognition of all of the important work that they have done to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS – both in Iran and globally. We hope that Iranian authorities will release Dr. Arash Alaei promptly so that he also can return to his vital medical work.
~ Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of Physicians for Human Rights.

The brothers were apparently targeted by the government for their work traveling the world and liaising with health workers across the globe to find solutions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They focused on overcoming stigma and discrimination against injection drug users and helped to develop and implement Iran’s enlightened policies on needle exchange. The Iranian government used the doctors’ travel to international AIDS conferences and meetings with colleagues in the United States as a basis for their charges.

The brothers were in Tehran visiting their family prior to their planned participation in the 2008 global HIV/AIDS conference in Mexico City, when they were arrested by Iranian authorities. The Alaeis were wrongfully convicted of “communications with an enemy government [USA]” and “seeking to overthrow the Iranian government” in 2008. Arash was sentenced to six years in prison and Kamiar was sentenced to three years. Kamiar was released a few months ago but Arash is still being detained. During the 18 months prior to Kamiar’s release, the brothers had been released for short furloughs.

Since their arrests in June 2008 an international campaign spearheaded by PHR has called for their release, engaging hundreds of leading AIDS experts, health organizations, and thousands of supporters from more than 80 countries.

“PHR, along with colleagues, classmates, and prominent leaders in the global AIDS and public health communities, have advocated for the release of Arash and Kamiar for more than three years, and we only wish that Arash could join in this celebration with Kamiar.
~ Susannah Sirkin

Since their arrests, the Alaeis’ colleagues and classmates campaigned vigorously on their behalf, gaining the support of the World Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the World Health assembly, the International AIDS Society, numerous academic institutions, leading AIDS researchers, and more. Together with other doctors and public health workers in dozens of countries around the world they 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; see background here.