Brothers Arash and Kamiar Alaei, noted for their dedicated work on AIDS issues in Iran, were accused of "soft subversion" through their western contacts, imprisoned in solitary confinement for seven months, tried in close court proceedings, and sentenced to six and three years' imprisonment respectively. News of their actual charges were only released this week and their sentences were only just announced.
In Iran, whenever someone is arrested on political charges, their families are told to "cooperate" with the authorities by keeping quiet and refusing to talk to reporters, in return for which they are promised a speedy investigation and fair treatment of their arrested kin. Most families agree to keeping quiet, fearing further complications and charges in the cases. When the charges were finally announced earlier this week after seven months, Alaeis' mother was devastated. Upon hearing her sons' sentences today, she finally broke down and talked to Rooz Online's Omid Memarian. It is devastating to read the poor mother's heart wrenching words of sadness and feelings of injustice and betrayal by the unusual punishment of her health activist sons. She says the sentencing came despite any confessions on her sons' part, but she has been told that a tape of their confessions will soon be made public. She fears her sons' further exposure to torture in order for those "confessions" to be extracted.
Though Iranian activists, civil society workers, writers, university professors and students, artists, and labor unionists have been systematically harassed, arrested, tortured, and imprisoned by IRI authorities for 30 years, seldom have violations of victims' families rights been discussed. Family members of those arrested and tortured in Iran pay a high price in their desperation and sadness about their family members' disappearance, detention, and mistreatment, and they themselves are harassed to prevent them from talking to anyone about what they know. Furthermore, if and when bails are announced for any detainees, it is the family who has to scramble to raise the funds or put up deeds to their homes in order to see their relatives temporarily freed. Should the suspect flee the country, which has happened in many cases, the family's entire savings and only asset is suspended by the courts, forcing the remaining family members into debt and destitute.
What is devastating in the case of a mother such as Mrs. Alaei, is the pain and doubt you can feel through her words: What if I hadn't kept quiet all these months? Could I have saved my sons from such unfair charges and sentences for their humanitarian work? Should I have defied the authorities instead of trusting them?
My activist friends in Tehran tell me that indeed there aren't and can never be any "deals" with the devil. Families of individuals charged with political charges MUST raise a big stink and talk to any and every reporter who calls them and asks them about it, and when they run of such reporters, they should write letters to amnesty and human rights organizations outside of Iran. They tell me only those whose arrests received high publicity and attention from international organizations have been spared in this tug of war.
I would like to appeal to each and every one of you who read these words and wish to somehow help. Please sign every single petition that comes your way in favor of releasing Iranian political dissidents and activists. You may truly be saving their lives and their freedom. Remember also that you are helping their anguished and frightened families this way.
Sign Physicians for Human Rights online petition for release of Alaei brothers.
Sources: Los Angeles Times article, Iran accuses 2 doctors of ties to alleged U.S. Plot
Rooz Online article, "I fear they will torture my sons for confessions."
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Mehdi you said all you needed to say
by IRANdokht on Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:03 AM PST"Ah, you people make me sick! Why am I so smart and you guys so dumb?"
case closed!
IRANdokht
What a bunch of falsehood this article is
by Mehdi on Fri Jan 23, 2009 09:06 AM PSTProbably the reality is that there was far more destruction, murder, killing, imprisonment, etc, after the glorious nation of Iran threw out Shah's regime in the hopes of a better system. It came as a severe shock to us what happened after the so-called revolution. Everyone was expecting heaven and what we got was not only not heaven but significantly worse than what we had. But IRI has NEVER "systematically" murdered/imprisoned/.... ALL activists and intellectuals or anything to that effect. It is simply a lie perpetrated by those who have a completely different agenda than betterment for Iran - such groups as the MKO (looking for power only), some Shahis who are upset due to loss of money, position, power or relatives, Zionists (Nazis of our era), all other agents of foreign forces (probably MI-6, CIA, et all). Unfortunately our "intellectuals" are still falling for the same trap that they fell for in 1979 - extreme exaggeration of facts and the misrepresentation of the scene to a point of non-recognition. 70 million people live in that country - a country with a history or relative backwardness - and one or two are jailed or hanged and we get all upset and we want the destruction of everything in order to fix that "injustice." We don't even know what really happened, who these people really are - maybe they are in fact agents of foreign forces. But we don't care, we want revolution! Ah, you people make me sick! Why am I so smart and you guys so dumb?
Dear Paymaneh Please read
by shortfilm (not verified) on Thu Jan 22, 2009 08:41 AM PSTDear Paymaneh Please read This. I know you've written about it before and it's sad that no one is talking about it.
Thank you Paymaneh
by Azadeh Azad on Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:29 AM PSTSigned.
Thanks for letting us know...
by alborz on Wed Jan 21, 2009 04:57 PM PST....as the charge is quite familiar to the Baha'is. The theory goes something like this..."serving the Iranian people and the disenfranchised particularly, can highlight the deficiencies of the Islamic regime and engender support and affinity for those providing the care. This would be intolerable and must be stopped." The most expedient way to do this is that a velvet revolution is at work here.
Signed!
Alborz
Alborz
Mehdi
by Free Spirit on Wed Jan 21, 2009 04:39 PM PSTWhat does catching a cold have to do with two individuals being arrested, tried and convicted in Iran?
Paymaneh Amiri,
I signed the petition. Thank you for bringing it to our attention and providing the link.
Mehdi
by Kaveh Nouraee on Wed Jan 21, 2009 04:19 PM PSTWho knows if it is real or hype? It sounds plausible to me, though. Bottom line is neither one of us know jack about the matter, otherwise we would both be multi-billionaires.
Kaveh Nouraee: Facts or medical establishment propaganda?
by Mehdi on Wed Jan 21, 2009 03:58 PM PSTI am afraid what you are saying is what I call medical establishment propaganda. It is not facts nor scientific. Please pay attention that SOME people exposed to such viruses catch a cold NOT everyone. And these "scientists" have absolutely NO CLUE why that is. The CAUSE of cold is NOT cold virus. Cold virus or any other creature is the VEHICLE and MECHANISM, NOT the cause. The cause is 100% UNKNOWN to our beloved "scientists." Blaming cold on virus is like blaming war on machine guns. They don't make wars, they facilitate or are a necessary part of it.
signed, sealed and
by Anonymous fish (not verified) on Wed Jan 21, 2009 03:22 PM PSTdelivered to as many people as i could think of, including medical family members.
Pity
by Bunyip on Wed Jan 21, 2009 02:54 PM PSTPerhaps if they were Palestinians, we would hear lots of noise in this site. But they are mere Iranians. Brave Iranians.
Thank you Paymaneh
by KB on Wed Jan 21, 2009 02:06 PM PSTsigned.
Mehdi
by Kaveh Nouraee on Wed Jan 21, 2009 01:50 PM PSTI used to see it the exact same way as you are expressing.
Then I learned that in the case of the common cold, which has been around as long as mammals have roamed the Earth, the cold virus has mutated in to countless variations.
When we get one cold, it's from exposure to a particluar cold virus. Once we get over that cold, we won't catch that same cold again. But as the cold goes from person to person, each person (who is at this point nothing more than a "host" for the virus, adds a little something to it that alters the virus. That's why curing it is harder than winning the lotto.
I forgot the name of the article I read about it, but it was fascinating. Afterwards, I immediately washed my hands and bough hand sanitizer.
AIDS research is a farse
by Mehdi on Wed Jan 21, 2009 01:14 PM PSTLet's see, the medical establishment is usurping hundreds of trillions of dollar worldwide for many many years and they still have NO CLUE why someone catches a cold!!!!!! They can only "treat" symptoms without knowing at all what is the cause of a cold. Now they want to deal with AIDS and cancer and such? Just how many doctors, hospital owners and pharmaceutical giants should we buy Mercedes for before we realize that these boys and girls have NO CLUE what they are doing? Give it up people. Sympathy hasn't helped anybody. Real solutions are VERY unlikely to come from today's medical establishment - only fake and superficial solutions.
get it out and get it signed
by Anonymous fish (not verified) on Wed Jan 21, 2009 01:13 PM PSTlets put all our positive efforts into this important issue. it's something that everyone will agree on, i would hope!
Payam
by Kaveh Nouraee on Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:36 PM PSTThey're busy celebrating with Hamas.
Thanks Paymaneh. I signed.
by desi on Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:56 AM PSTThanks Paymaneh. I signed.
Where are the "die-hard
by payam2 (not verified) on Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:48 AM PSTWhere are the "die-hard humanists" on this site?
Thank you Paymaneh. It's great to see someone cares.
Done
by Kaveh Nouraee on Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:45 AM PSTThank you for sending the link.
Signed
by Darius Kadivar on Wed Jan 21, 2009 07:21 AM PSTThank you for the update.
DK
Thank you Paymaneh
by IRANdokht on Wed Jan 21, 2009 06:18 AM PSTI signed and sent the petition out asking my contacts to sign it too.
I hope they are released safe and sound. It's a shame how IRI treats humanitarian efforts and dedicated scientists!!
Thank you for the info and good luck to all us.
IRANdokht