Free Yousef Emadi
Yousef Emadi is an Iranian music producer who has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison since 2016. Emadi was arrested along with musicians and fellow collaborators Mehdi and Hossein Rajabian in October 2013 and all three were sentenced to three years in prison plus three years of probation in December 2015. The three men, founders of music distributor BargMusic, were scheduled for release on parole in June 2017, but though the Rajabian brothers gained their freedom, Emadi remains imprisoned after having a year added to his sentence for allegedly disseminating information to the foreign media while detained at Evin Prison.
The three Iranian musicians founded the underground music distributor BargMusic in 2009. BargMusic applied on multiple occasions to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for a permit to operate, as such a license is required by all organizations wishing to perform, produce, or distribute music for any commercial purpose in Iran. The Islamic Republic’s government censors use these permits to keep a tight rein on what art is allowed to be heard by the public.
As its requests for permits were repeatedly denied, BargMusic continued to operate openly in an underground manner up to its founders’ arrests in 2013. It is not uncommon even for artists whose work has been approved by Iran’s government to find themselves suddenly on the wrong side of censors with their projects halted. For many of these artists, underground distributors like BargMusic are the only way to release their work. During their trial and appeal, the accusations brought against the three artists included distributing the music of female singers as well as “political and anti-revolutionary” ones.
The initial sentence for Emadi and the Rajabians was six years, which was reduced after a lengthy appeal process to three years in prison plus three years probation. However, the Rajabian brothers were released on bail, and then on parole, in the summer of 2017, while Emadi remained in custody. He was interrogated by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in August 2017, and then held incommunicado for a month, during which time supporters, family, and his legal counsel were unaware of the new charges brought against him.
Emadi denies the new charge of “propaganda against the state,” arguing that he never contacted reporters outside the prison—he has three months to appeal the IRGC’s decision.
