The music producers who are now serving a prison term have appealed to their colleagues, calling on them to respond to cruel confinement conditions and inhuman treatment of political prisoners in Iran.
Brothers Mehdi and Hossein Rajabian serve a prison term for recording and distributing music without permission from Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. They reported torture by beating and electrocution during the investigation to force them make a confession on TV. Mehdi Rajabian now suffers muscular dystrophy from the repeated torture.
The brothers went on a hunger strike after the authorities denied Mehdi a temporary leave for hospital treatment. As a result of the protest the brothers were separated into different cells. They agreed to stop the hunger strike only after the promises they would be placed in the same cell again and Mehdi Rajabian would receive medical care.
The promises were never fulfilled. Hossein Rajabian writes in an open letter he managed to send from prison that confinement conditions have got worse for two months. The brothers resumed the hunger strike on October 28 despite serious health threats. A few days before the strike, Hossein received treatment for a lung infection he caught in prison, and Mehdi can only walk with a cane and demonstrates symptoms usual for multiple sclerosis, though a precise diagnosis hasn’t been made.
The brothers’ open letter reads: “We call on all musicians around the world to condemn these abuses with a worthy response. Do not forget us in these suffocating times… There’s no greater suffering than to be forgotten.”
Recently, popular Iranian rapper Amir Tataloo was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 74 lashes. Earlier, Iran’s prosecutor’s office charged Parviz Tanavoli, one of the country’s most famous sculptures, of disturbing the public peace. His passport was confiscated and he was banned from leaving the country. In May, eight women were arrested in Iran for posting their photos without headscarves on Instagram.
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