Renowned Doctors Among Four "Destroyed" in Iran

Two Iranian brothers known worldwide for their work on HIV/AIDS are among the four "gang of saboteurs" cited yesterday in the Tehran Times as "recently discovered and destroyed."

According the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iranian Judiciary spokesperson Ali-Reza Jamshidi told a news conference yesterday that four Iranian citizens had been arrested and brought to the court on charges of "communications with an enemy government" and seeking to overthrow the Iranian government under.

Jamshidi, who last month announced the stoning of two men convicted of adultery in northeastern Iran, claimed: "They were linked to the CIA, backed by the US government and State Department... They recruited and trained people to work with different espionage networks to launch a velvet overthrow of the Iranian government".

The rights of doctors Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei have been violated and their commitment to public health worldwide has been misrepresented by the Iranian Government as a threat to their regime. In a press statement yesterday, a coalition of human rights groups -- including Physicians for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran -- said the charge of plotting a coup is being brought unfairly, without the brothers being given the chance to adequately defend themselves.

Their trial was marked by clear violations of due process. The groups have spoken out repeatedly about their concern that these serious charges had been levied without due process. The verdict in the case is expected this week, following a one-day trial in Tehran's Revolutionary Court on December 31, 2008, on charges of communicating with an "enemy government." At the trial, the Iranian prosecutor also informed the court of additional, secret evidence which the brothers' attorney had no opportunity to refute, because the prosecutor did not disclose them.

Over the last week, thousands of people from around the globe contacted the Iranian Mission to the UN in New York City, demanding the Alaeis' release. In addition 3,100 doctors, nurses and public health workers from 85 countries have signed an online petition demanding their release. Leading physicians and public health specialists and numerous medical and scientific organizations have publicly called for the brothers' release.

Dr. Kamiar Alaei is a doctoral candidate at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health and was expected to resume his studies there this fall. In 2007, he received a Master of Science degree in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

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. Since 1998, the Drs. Alaei have been carrying out HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs, particularly focused on harm reduction for injecting drug users.

In addition to their work in Iran, the Alaei brothers have held training courses for Afghan and Tajik medical workers and have worked to encourage regional cooperation among 12 Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. Their efforts expanded the expertise of doctors in the region, advanced the progress of medical science, and earned Iran recognition as a model of best practice by the World Health Organization.

Comments

[UberReaganite]

Back in the early 1980s I saw a fellow servicemember use his church and connections to smuggle some decent Persian families out of Iran and sponsor their immigration into America. The Persians were a couple of well educated professionals fleeing Iran because in their own words "There is no life for decent people in Iran as long as the crazy people run our country" Those crazy people are the religious fanatics that are still dragging all of the civilized modern Persians in Iran kicking and screaming back into the stone age.

So now its 25 years later and we can see that nothing has changed in Iran. I'm quite certain ALL of the civilized people in Iran would flee if given the means and opportunity but many are trapped there suffering under the current religious fanatic government. I feel sorry for all Perisans and I feel that world is suffering the loss of a great and talented people. It is a sad time in history for all Persians.

[PeteWitzler]

It is tragic how Kamiar and Arash's innovative work on HIV/AIDS has been twisted for political means by the Iranian government. What they did was work with the international community to replicate successful programs they developed in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. They used their passion, knowledge and expertise to train other clinicians in their best practices so they could improve conditions in their own countries. Many people are alive today because of the work of Kamiar and Arash. What they did was not a crime, it was good medicine.