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2 PHYSICIANS ACCUSED OF PLOTTING AGAINST IRAN SENTENCED
By Borzou Daragahi, [email protected]
Los Angeles Times
Jan 22 2009
CA
The brothers get six- and three-year prison sentences. Iran says the
pair and two others were part of a U.S.-funded effort to foment unrest
and overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Reporting from Beirut -- Two well-known physicians accused of taking
part in a plot to overthrow the Islamic Republic were given stiff
prison sentences Wednesday, their lawyer said.
Arash Alaei was sentenced to six years in jail and his younger brother
Kamiar got three years, attorney Massoud Shafaei told The Times,
adding that he would appeal the verdict within the 20-day limit.
Also Wednesday, human rights activists identified a third defendant
in the case: Sylvia Hartounian, 33, a reproductive medicine specialist.
Iranian authorities allege that the Alaei brothers, both pioneers in
the field of HIV/AIDS treatment in Iran, Hartounian and a fourth,
unnamed suspect were part of what they say was a $32-million
U.S.-funded "intelligence war" aimed at stirring civil unrest
and revolution in Iran. The suspects' lawyer, relatives and other
supporters say the charge is blatantly false.
Iranian authorities have not announced the verdict against the
brothers, though an unnamed official leaked word on the case's outcome
this week.
"It's shocking to the worldwide scientific and medical communities
that they were ever arrested," said Jonathan Hutson, a spokesman for
the Cambridge, Mass.-based Physicians for Human Rights. "They are
not known to be politically active. . . . If they were engaged in
any kind of warfare, it was only to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS."
The charge against the doctors appears to stem from a 2006 medical
conference in Washington funded by the U.S. State Department that
included specialized topics such as "Pediatric Oncology and Child
Health" and "Infectious Diseases, Including HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis."
Rights activists say the Iranian government was fully aware of the
conference and that its small diplomatic outpost in Washington even
hosted a dinner for the conference's Iranian health professionals.
"It was provided with full details of the participation of Iranian
physicians and researchers and the entire program was transparent,"
said a statement issued by the International Campaign for Human Rights.
The brothers and Hartounian, an Iranian Armenian national, were
arrested in Tehran in July. Hutson, citing sources close to the trial,
said the brothers were confined to Section 209, the infamous ward for
national security detainees at Tehran's Evin prison, and suggested
that "the brothers were coerced during this period of intensive
interrogation."
Shafaei, the lawyer, said the brothers had regular visits by their
mother.
Hartounian also was subject to intense interrogation, rights
activists say. The International Campaign for Human Rights cites
a former prisoner who says that Hartounian suffers from severe
claustrophobia. After being held in solitary confinement for 10
days, she reportedly agreed to appear before a video camera and read
a statement "confessing" that Arash Alaei led a secret cell that
answered to the CIA and Pentagon.
Hutson cited sources close to the trial who said one of the brothers
had been told that if he agreed to read a confession prepared
by Iranian authorities in front of a video camera, both would be
released. It remains unclear whether either of the brothers have
appeared in taped confessions.
Iranian American scholar Haleh Esfandiari was released from prison
in 2007 after confessing to taking part in a U.S.-backed program to
foment unrest in Iran.
Rights activists say the current case so far hinges solely on taped
confessions by imprisoned suspects.
"The Iranian government has not produced a shred of evidence to back
these outlandish claims," Hutson said.
"My children are innocent," the brothers' mother said in an interview
published Wednesday on the Persian-language news website Rooz, adding
that "it is possible that they tortured my children into making
filmed confessions."
By Borzou Daragahi, [email protected]
Los Angeles Times
Jan 22 2009
CA
The brothers get six- and three-year prison sentences. Iran says the
pair and two others were part of a U.S.-funded effort to foment unrest
and overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Reporting from Beirut -- Two well-known physicians accused of taking
part in a plot to overthrow the Islamic Republic were given stiff
prison sentences Wednesday, their lawyer said.
Arash Alaei was sentenced to six years in jail and his younger brother
Kamiar got three years, attorney Massoud Shafaei told The Times,
adding that he would appeal the verdict within the 20-day limit.
Also Wednesday, human rights activists identified a third defendant
in the case: Sylvia Hartounian, 33, a reproductive medicine specialist.
Iranian authorities allege that the Alaei brothers, both pioneers in
the field of HIV/AIDS treatment in Iran, Hartounian and a fourth,
unnamed suspect were part of what they say was a $32-million
U.S.-funded "intelligence war" aimed at stirring civil unrest
and revolution in Iran. The suspects' lawyer, relatives and other
supporters say the charge is blatantly false.
Iranian authorities have not announced the verdict against the
brothers, though an unnamed official leaked word on the case's outcome
this week.
"It's shocking to the worldwide scientific and medical communities
that they were ever arrested," said Jonathan Hutson, a spokesman for
the Cambridge, Mass.-based Physicians for Human Rights. "They are
not known to be politically active. . . . If they were engaged in
any kind of warfare, it was only to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS."
The charge against the doctors appears to stem from a 2006 medical
conference in Washington funded by the U.S. State Department that
included specialized topics such as "Pediatric Oncology and Child
Health" and "Infectious Diseases, Including HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis."
Rights activists say the Iranian government was fully aware of the
conference and that its small diplomatic outpost in Washington even
hosted a dinner for the conference's Iranian health professionals.
"It was provided with full details of the participation of Iranian
physicians and researchers and the entire program was transparent,"
said a statement issued by the International Campaign for Human Rights.
The brothers and Hartounian, an Iranian Armenian national, were
arrested in Tehran in July. Hutson, citing sources close to the trial,
said the brothers were confined to Section 209, the infamous ward for
national security detainees at Tehran's Evin prison, and suggested
that "the brothers were coerced during this period of intensive
interrogation."
Shafaei, the lawyer, said the brothers had regular visits by their
mother.
Hartounian also was subject to intense interrogation, rights
activists say. The International Campaign for Human Rights cites
a former prisoner who says that Hartounian suffers from severe
claustrophobia. After being held in solitary confinement for 10
days, she reportedly agreed to appear before a video camera and read
a statement "confessing" that Arash Alaei led a secret cell that
answered to the CIA and Pentagon.
Hutson cited sources close to the trial who said one of the brothers
had been told that if he agreed to read a confession prepared
by Iranian authorities in front of a video camera, both would be
released. It remains unclear whether either of the brothers have
appeared in taped confessions.
Iranian American scholar Haleh Esfandiari was released from prison
in 2007 after confessing to taking part in a U.S.-backed program to
foment unrest in Iran.
Rights activists say the current case so far hinges solely on taped
confessions by imprisoned suspects.
"The Iranian government has not produced a shred of evidence to back
these outlandish claims," Hutson said.
"My children are innocent," the brothers' mother said in an interview
published Wednesday on the Persian-language news website Rooz, adding
that "it is possible that they tortured my children into making
filmed confessions."