My fellow Kossacks, lend me your keyboards to tell Iran: Free Dr. Arash Alaei and Dr. Kamiar Alaei.
These two Iranian HIV/AIDS physicians, who are brothers, need your help right now. This will just take a minute, and will make a difference. As I write this, my colleagues at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) are holding a press conference in Mexico City, at the international AIDS conference. One of the brothers was scheduled to speak there this week. Instead, there will be an empty chair on the dais. Why is that, and what urgent action can you take to help?
A coalition of AIDS and human rights organizations that includes PHR and Human Rights Watch (HRW) has launched a campaign to free the Drs. Alaei. The Alaei brothers are active in HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment in Iran.
According to international news reports, Iranian security forces detained the Drs. Alaei in late June, 2008 and are holding them incommunicado. The doctors' whereabouts remain unknown. On Sunday, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse (AFP) cited Iranian news reports stating that the brothers have been charged with participating in "a velvet revolution," partly due to their activities at international AIDS conferences, such as the one currently taking place in Mexico City. Dr. Arash Alaei had been slated to speak at the international AIDS conference this Thursday.
"If international media reports are accurate, then the allegations made against the Drs. Alaei are illegitimate and politically motivated," stated PHR's CEO Frank Donaghue.
"The Iranian government must provide the Alaei brothers with immediate access to legal counsel and to their families," said Joe Amon, Director of the Health and Human Rights division at HRW.
Iran's prosecutor in charge of the case claims that the brothers traveled internationally, drew the attention of international non-governmental organizations, and trained people. Who knows? Maybe they even thought thoughts and advocated ideas, too. That's what freedom looks like.
AFP reports:
"A case has been filed whose defendants are two brothers. They held conferences on such topics as AIDS, which drew the attention of domestic and foreign organisations and NGOs," Tehran's deputy prosecutor Hassan Haddad was quoted as saying by the reformist Etemad newspaper.
Arash Alaei and Kamiar Alaei have worked for many years on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in Iran and internationally, and were reportedly arrested in June. Haddad did not confirm if the pair were currently in jail.
"They would organise foreign trips for people and train them. They were aware of what they were doing, and their training was of the nature of a velvet revolution," Haddad said.
PHR has launched a web site, IranFreeTheDocs.org, which is collecting signatures on a petition to the government of Iran, urging it to respect and uphold the doctors' basic human rights. And in conjunction with PHR and the HIV Medical Association, sixteen of the top infectious disease doctors in the world have written a letter to the Minister of Health and Medical Education in Iran on behalf of the doctors. This and other supporting documents are available at IranFreeTheDocs.org.
"These charges stifle the country's efforts to address AIDS effectively and to serve as a model for the region," added Donaghue. "We urge the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to release them immediately so that they can continue their important medical and public health work for the betterment of the people of Iran and the world."
Disclosure: As many of my fellow Kossacks know, I recently took a position as PHR's Chief Communications Officer. So, on behalf of my colleagues at PHR, thank you for taking action.