A group of musicians have written to the Minister for Culture and Islamic Guidance, Ali Jannati, calling for greater freedoms for musicians in Iran. In the recent open letter, the artists refer to the oppressive atmosphere in which musicians are forced to work in the country, often being sentenced to long periods in prison on trumped-up security offences.

The letter gives numerous examples of this stifling environment, including the arrests of musician and founder of music website BargMusic, Mehdi Rajabian, and independent filmmaker Yousef Emadi. Musician Majid Derakhshani has also been banned from working, and authorities have cancelled countless music concerts in recent months. The letter also emphasizes that artists should not be imprisoned for expressing themselves creatively.

Mehdi Rajabian, his brother Hossein and Yousef Emadi were all arrested on October 12, 2013 in the northern city of Sari. The three were detained for working together in a rented office space to produce, distribute and promote alternative types of Iranian music. When the Revolutionary Guards arrested them, they were not in possession of an arrest warrant.

Following the arrests, security officers searched the premises and seized computers and other items, and then took the three men to an unknown location. In response, 400 Iranian artists wrote an open letter to Ali Jannati demanding that security agencies stop harassing artists in Iran.

The three men were interrogated for 18 days in a safe house run by the Intelligence Unit of the Revolutionary Guards. During this time, their families were kept in the dark about their conditions and were never told why their loved ones had been detained. After their interrogations, Branch three of the Revolutionary Court in Sari agreed to release them on bail. However, before it could carry this out, the ruling was revoked and the three were transferred to Ward 2A of Evin Prison in Tehran, which is run by the Revolutionary Guards.

Then in May 2015, Judge Mohammad Moghiseh tried the three men at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court. Moghiseh has been  repeatedly accused of violating judicial practice and the human rights of defendants. The trial lasted a total of 15 minutes and ended with Judge Moghiseh sentencing each of them to six years in prison for “propaganda against the regime” and for “insulting the sacred.”

Whilst in detention in Sari, the three were not allowed out of their cells for exercise. They also lost considerable weight after they were placed under intense physical and mental pressures.

“They were in poor physical and psychological conditions when they were transferred to Evin Prison,” a source who wanted to remain anonymous told IranWire. “They were blindfolded and transferred to Ward 2A under strict security precautions. They were continuously kept under pressure and were not allowed lawyers.”

Prior to his arrest, Hossein Rajabian was working on his first feature film, The Inverted Triangle. Although he had all the necessary permits to make the film, Intelligence Ministry agents seized his footage and arrested him.

False Promises

“They were encouraged by their interrogator to sign confessions against themselves,” said the anonymous source. “They were told that the charges against them were not political but related to their illegal activities in music and filmmaking and that if they confessed their cases would close.”

The authorities have banned the men from leaving Iran and have confiscated their passports. For Hossein Rajabian, this means he cannot attend the Vienna School of Dramatic Arts, which had accepted his application to study.

Authorities continue to monitor and filter the BargMusic website, which Mehdi Rajabian founded. When the site was fully active, it published albums by Iranian artists and lyricists and aimed to promote a new kind of Iranian music. Most importantly, it published songs by female soloists. Under Islamic Republic laws, female soloists are not prohibited to release songs in Iran. Between 2008 and 2013 — when it was being filtered — the site published more than 100 albums by underground Iranian artists.

Mehdi Rajabian plays a traditional Iranian string instrument called the setar. Before his arrest, he acted as a composer and setar player in the film A History of Iranian Wars According to Setar. Security forces arrested him on the film set during filming, confiscated the parts of the film he had worked on, and banned him from working.

Yousef Emadi, who also plays the setar, has worked as a sound engineer on a number of different albums. He and Mehdi Rajabian have also worked together on several papers looking at Iranian music for national and foreign publications. Emadi also traveled to different parts of Iran to record the voices of male and female folk singers. However, this collection was also confiscated. He suspects it was also destroyed.

After spending 40 days in solitary confinement, Yousef Emadi was released on bail. Mehdi Rajabian and his brother Hossein were also released on bail after they were forced to spend two months in solitary confinement. Although all three have appealed, the appeals court has yet to release a verdict. All three continue to wait in uncertainty.