Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei are well-known Iranian HIV/AIDS physicians who have made breakthroughs in harm reduction and stood up for the health and human rights of the people of Iran. Instead of being rewarded for their groundbreaking work, they’ve been thrown into prison in Iran. Their arrest robs the world of two great physicians and has a chilling effect on public health dialogue and diplomacy worldwide. The more recent arrest and trial Iranian American journalist Roxana Saberi paints a shockingly similar picture of the Iranian justice system's crack down on human rights activists. Well similar except that the Drs. Alaei dont have Jesse Jackson offering to negotiate their release.
Join the Global Day of Actionand say with one voice:
First a little background on both cases.
Kossack Keith Moon has a great diary detailing the history of Saberi's case. According the Al Jazeera she has been sentenced to 9 years and her case will now go before the appeals court.
The Drs. Alaei case is a little further along in the appeals process, given that they have been held in the notorious section 209 of Evin prison in Tehran since June 2008. They were finally brought to court and convicted in a sham trial in January of 2009. In response to this travesty of justice, an international coalition of HIV/AIDS and human rights groups organized a call in day to the Iranian mission to the UN. You can read a diary by jhutson with the interesting reactions from the embassy staff during the call in day.
Kamiar and Arash learned on Jan. 20, 2009 that they had been convicted and sentenced to terms of three and six years respectively, to be served at Evin Prison. Their attorney filed an appeal February 9, 2009. The Court in Iran opened the appeal March 18th, 2009, and denied the brothers’ appeal one day later on March 19th, 2009.
Their lawyer was informed of the court’s decision April 6th, 2009. He has a month from that date to appeal this sentence under Article 18 of Iran’s Constitution. So, to recap: The court took only one day to decide the fate of these Drs who have saved thousands of Iranian lives with their innovative HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and care programs.
So why are people like Arash, Kamiar and Roxana being rounded up by the government? Well thats the million dollar question. Lets first look at the similarities here.
Here's what we know:
- Both the Drs Alaei and Ms. Saberi were originally charged with purchasing or possessing alcohol, and in the Alaei's case possessing satellite equipment.
- Under these pretenses they were sent to the notorious section 209 of Evin prison where they were reportedly held in solitary confinement.
- Both the Drs. Alaei and Ms. Saberi were denied access to their lawyers, their family, denied knowledge of the charges against them and robbed of their due process of law.
- At some point, interrogators seems to have elicited a confession from the Drs. Alaei and Ms Saberi to the tune of cooperating with an enemy state and spying for the US. Given the history of interrogation practices at Evin prison, any confession must be viewed as tainted and inadmissible in court.
- Both the Drs Alaei and Ms Saberi were tried in a sham court proceedings where they were not only not informed of the charges against them, but also had no access to the evidence being used as a basis for the charges.
- All three of them studied in the US
*Ms Saberi has a journalism degree from Northwestern University
*Dr Kamiar Alaei has an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health and should be in Albany right now finishing his Doctor of Public Health degree at Albany School of Public Health.
It's nearly impossible to discern why the Iranian Government has started this crack down. Theories abound such as using Roxana Saberi as a bargaining chip for negotiations with the Obama Administration. Perhaps the Iranian government was just caught off guard when they realized Dr Kamiar and Arash Alaei were going to present their research to 20,000 international HIV/AIDS scientists and activist at the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.
Regardless of the motivations of the Iranian Government, they acted with total disregard for the basic standards of due process and violated the human rights of Ms Saberi and the Drs. Alaei.
On May 12, an international coalition of HIV/AIDS and human rights organizations is holding a global day of action for the Alaeis to say with one voice "Treating AIDS is Not a Crime!"
You can join this global movement by:
*Signing a petition
*Organizing a vigil at the Iranian Embassy in your country(or attending one in DCor NYC)
*Sending a Letter to the Iranian Embassy
*Releasing a statement from your organization on May 12
So far we have events organized in 12 different countries
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Please join this international day of solidarity for Drs Kamiar and Arash Alaei.