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For Immediate Release

PHR Announces Global Day of Action for Dr. Arash Alaei

Health professionals, scientists and citizens call for immediate release of jailed doctor in Iran

Cambridge, Mass. - 07/19/2011

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today announced a Global Day of Action for Dr. Arash Alaei during which health professionals, scientists and concerned citizens will appeal to the Iranian authorities for the immediate release of the internationally renowned HIV/AIDS doctor. During today’s Global Day of Action, PHR and its supporters will engage in a social media and viral campaign to call for the release of Dr. Arash Alaei from Iranian prison.

Drs. Arash and Kamiar Alaei are internationally renowned HIV/AIDS physicians who were arrested in June 2008 and wrongfully convicted in January 2009 on charges of communicating with an enemy government. The Iranian government used the doctors’ travel to international AIDS conferences and meetings with colleagues in the United States as a basis for the charges. In late 2010, Dr. Kamiar Alaei was released following 870 days in prison in Iran, but Dr. Arash Alaei remains in Evin Prison in Tehran.

On Tuesday, July 19at the annual International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome, PHR and International AIDS Society will convene a press conference with Dr. Kamiar Alaei where he will describe his work and make a public appeal for the release of his imprisoned brother. Moderating the press conference will be Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of PHR.

WHEN

19 July 2011, 10 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

WHERE

IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention
Auditorium del Parco della Musica
Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30
Press Conference Room in the Media Center
Rome, Italy

Sign the petition, which includes as signatories prominent AIDS leaders in medicine, science and education, urging the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, to immediately release Dr. Arash Alaei, or visit IranFreetheDocs.org for more information.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.

  • 1988 — First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
  • 1996 — Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
  • 1996 — Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
  • 1997 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • 2003 — Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
  • 2004 — Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
  • 2005 — Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay
  • 2010 — Investigated the epidemic of violence spread by Burma’s military junta
  • 2011 — Championed the principle of noninterference with medical services
                  in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring
  • 2012 — Trained doctors, lawyers, police, and judges in the Democratic Republic of
                  the Congo, Kenya, and Syria on the proper collection of evidence in
                  sexual violence cases
  • 2013 — Won first prize in the Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention with MediCapt,
                  our mobile app that documents evidence of torture and sexual violence

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