Dr. Alaei is a doctoral candidate at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health in Albany, New York and was expected to resume his studies there in the fall of 2008. In 2007, he received a Master of Science degree in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

He and his brother have been held in Evin prison in Tehran since June 2008. They were indicted in December 2008 on charges of communicating with an “enemy government” according to their attorney, Masoud Shafie.

Dr. Kamiar Alaei has been detained far longer than Iranian penal code allows. Articles 30-34 of the Code of Penal Procedure of the Islamic Republic of Iran allow for detentions but require that the investigating judge issue such detention orders for one month at a time and for no longer than four months.

Over 3,100 people from more than 85 countries have signed an online petition demanding their release, which can be viewed at http://www.IranFreeTheDocs.org.