Alaei brothers given 9 year prison term

Iranian revolution Court has sentenced Dr. Arash Alaei and his brother Kamyar Alaei , specialists in research and curbing AIDS, to altogether 9 years imprisonment. They are charged with participating in "soft toppling".

On Monday 19 January the head of the anti espionage section of the Intelligence Ministry had referred to the brothers as those who had participated in" toppling the regime softly".

Mr.Shafiee, their attorney, has said that the terms given are not final and they still have time to appeal!

According to article 508 of the Islamic penal code, the brothers have been sentenced to 9 years. The code indicates " Any person or organization in touch with a foreign government for any activities against the Islamic Republic, if not sentences to be untouchables, will be sentenced to one to ten years of prison". The attorney sees this reference inapplicable for his clients because the brothers have declined any relation with any US institution or foreign institutions. They have solely been active on scientific research to combat AIDS.

The anti espionage section has prior to this announced that they will release some of the confessions received of the convicted persons in a TV channel.

TV confessions have been used against political prisoners as long ago as 29 years and is a tactic well known to cover political motives.

Political prisoners whose "Confessions" have been released in the TV later have revealed the amount of torture inflicted on them for these confessions.