They are serving time at Evin Prison, infamous for holding political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
Brothers Mehdi and Hossein Rajabian, and Yousef Emadi were convicted in December 2015 and sentenced to 6 years in prison and a fine. After a lengthy appeal and due to the pressure from international human rights organizations the lawyers have since managed to take that down to 3 years served plus 3 year probation, while the fine has been waived. The three men have been charged with “insulting the sacred” and and producing “propaganda against the state”, the Voice Project reports.
They are “guilty” of creating an independent music distribution company BargMusic in 2009. Since then the partners repeatedly applied to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for an legal permit. The censorship has denied their numerous applications, leaving the BargMusic’s operations in the grey.
Censorship is ubiquitous and ominous in Iran’s culture. Even the creations of legally permitted artists often get arbitrarily labelled as illegal or immoral. For many Iranian artists, underground distributors like BargMusic are the only way to release their work.
Right before the arrest Mehdi Rajabian was running a research project looking into the history of Iranian music. His brother Hossein Rajabian had just finished working on a feature film. All the materials and data on the both projects have been confiscated by the law enforcement upon their arrest.
During the investigation between October and December 2015 the men were held in solitary confinement. They reported torture by beating and electrocution, used against them to force into making a confession on TV. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported that Mehdi Rajabian now suffers muscular dystrophy from the repeated torture.
Lately, free expression has scores a few major victories in Iran with two cartoonists freed and two poets released from prison so far this year. However, cases such as the one of the BargMusic distributers and other prisoners of conscience indicate that the situation remains dire.
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