Kamiar and Arash Alaei incident

Dr. Kamiar Alaei (Persian: ) and his brother Dr. Arash Alaei (Persian: ) are two Iranian HIV/AIDS doctors who were detained in Tehran's Evin prison from June 2008 through Dec 2010 and August 2011, respectively. Prior to their arrest, they developed harm-reduction programs in Iran and developed the program Global Health in the Middle East and Central Asia, an HIV/AIDS training program for regional health experts.

The doctors were tried in a one-day, secret trial on December 31, 2008 for alleged conspiracy to overthrow the Iranian government and with a number of charges including: “communications with an enemy government” and seeking to overthrow the Iranian government under article 508 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code. Speaking at a press conference, Iranian Judiciary spokesperson Ali-Reza Jamshidi claimed: “They recruited and trained people to work with different espionage networks to launch a velvet overthrow of the Iranian government”.

On January 20, 2009, the brothers and their attorney were informed that they had been convicted. Arash was sentenced to six years in prison; Kamiar was sentenced to three years.

The brothers received Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award from the New York Academy of Science in 2009, the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights by the Global Health Council in June 2011, and the first award for leadership in health and Human Rights by PAHO/WHO in December 2011.

On July 21, 2012, the brothers received the inaugural Elizabeth Taylor Award in Recognition of Efforts to Advocate for Human Rights in the field of HIV during the opening ceremonies of the AIDS 2012 conference.

On April 20, 2013, Alaei brothers were honored Citizens of the University Dr. Alaei was awarded the 2015 Ellis Island Medal of Honor on May 9, 2015. The Ellis Island Medals of Honor are sanctioned by the U.S. Congress and the recipients’ names are listed in the Congressional Record. Six Presidents of the United States, Nobel Prize winners, athletes, leaders of industry, artists, and others are among the remarkable group of individuals to have previously received the award. Provided by Wikipedia