Three men have been accused of “spreading propaganda against the system”, “insulting Islamic sanctities” and “illegal audio-visual activities”.
Mehdi and Hossein Rajabian and Yousef Emadi ran a website called Barg Music and were arrested by the elite Revolutionary Guards.
The three are said to be kept in solitary confinement and being beaten and electroshocked while in custody. The confessions extracted during that time were used to convict them. They didn’t have access to lawyers and were sentenced to 3 years in jail after a three-minute court hearing in 2015. The appeals court unheld their conviction from that trial and the men started their sentences last week.
Amnesty International named Mehdi, Hossein and Yousef “prisoners of conscience”.
The Raving Iran documentary was set to be toured international film festivals and that brought up the question that there are hundreds of other people being jailed for musical activities.
