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The case of the Alaei brothers

Au Sheikholeslami
***The Alaei brothers were detained in June 2008 after allegations that they had held conferences to recruit volunteers who would later be mobilised abroad to be trained in conducting a "velvet revolution."***
AFTER six months of detention and interrogation, Tehran's Revolutionary Court convicted the Alaei brothers for what has been called "designing a velvet revolution to overthrow the Iranian regime," BBC
reported.
Arash Alaei will be jailed for 6 years, while his brother Kamyar will spend 3 years in the famous Evin Prison in Tehran, although they have denied all allegations.
Arash and Kamyar Alaei are world-renowned HFV/Aids physicians who
have been active for over 20 years to introduce and provide treatment and prevention measures. They have carried out several projects and, since 1998, they have focused on harm reduction programs for injecting drug addicts.
They have also trained Tajik and Afghan doctors as a part of their attempt to encourage regional cooperation in countering HIV/Aids. According to Human Rights Watch "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 Organisation."
Masoud Shafaei, lawyer to the Alaei
brothers, told BBC Persian that the verdict was given to him on January 20, and added that he would "appeal for the defendants in due course."
The Alaei brothers were detained in June 2008 after allegations that they had held conferences to recruit volunteers who would later be mobilised abroad to be trained in conducting a "velvet revolution."
An Iranian counter-intelligence official said in a press conference on Monday that the confessions of the members of a network "designing a velvet revolution" would be soon broadcast on the state television.
For a long time, the largest share of
HIV/Aids spread in Iran was blamed on injecting addicts. However, the Iranian health minister last month announced that "dangerous sexual behaviour" had become a major cause in spreading the fatal disease.
Official figures in Iran suggest that about 18,000 patients carry the virus, a number that is thought to be only the tip of an iceberg. The Ministry of Health publishes these statistics every three months, and in their latest they highlighted that most of the infected belonged to the age range of 25 to 34, while over 93% of them were men.
Sexual education before university is still taboo in Iran. The officials are worried
that the conservative section of the society would be offended if sexuality was mentioned in the media. There are no adverts for condoms, and any trace of cleavage or bare skin is censored from films.
The European Union called on Iran in August to release the Alaei brothers. Earlier, in June, Physicians for Human Rights sent a letter to the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and asked him to free the two doctors. On January 13, the Human RightsWatch called on Iran to "acquit HIV/Aids doctors prosecuted in unfair trial."
All Sheikholeslami is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star. E-mail: a.shelkh@runbox com