Iranian Doctors Jailed For Antigovernment Activities Receive Global Health Prize

Brothers Kamiar and Arash Alaei, founders of an HIV-prevention program in Iran (undated)

Two Iranian doctors imprisoned three years ago for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government have been awarded a global health prize for their efforts to treat patients with HIV.

Brothers Kamiar and Arash Alaei were arrested in June 2008 and accused of communicating with the United States in a bid to unseat the government of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

Kamiar, 37, was released several months ago and was able to accept the award on June 16 in Washington. But Arash, 42, remains in prison in Tehran where he is serving a six-year sentence.

The brothers, who began treating patients with HIV in the late 1990s, received the Global Health Council's Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights.

compiled from agency reports