Iranian musicians Mehdi Rajabian and Yousef Emadi, and filmmaker Hossein Rajabian, have had their prison sentences upheld by an appeal court in Tehran. They are at imminent risk of arrest. If jailed, they will be prisoners of conscience.

Hossein Rajabian, Mehdi Rajabian and Yousef Emadi had been convicted of “insulting Islamic sanctities”, “spreading propaganda against the system” and “illegal audio-visual activities”, after a three-minute trial on 26 April 2015 before Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The charges had arisen from their artistic work, including Hossein Rajabian’s feature film dealing with women’s right to divorce in Iran and Mehdi Rajabian and Yousef Emadi’s distribution of unlicensed music by Iranian singers from outside the country, some of whose lyrics and messages are political or cover taboo subjects. The men have been out on bail since December 2013. Before that, they were held for two months in solitary confinement, where they have said they were subjected to beatings and electric shocks to make video “confessions”. Their “confessions” were used as evidence against them to secure their convictions even though they told the judge that they were obtained through torture and other ill-treatment. They have had no access to a lawyer at any stage of their arrest, detention, trial or appeal. Iran is a state party to Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and must protect the right to freedom of expression, including in the form of art.

Their case is now before the Office for the Implementation of Sentences, so they could be arrested and imprisoned at any time. We, the signatories of this petition, urge the Iranian authorities to quash the convictions of Mehdi Rajabian, Hossein Rajabian and Yousef Emadi as they arise solely from the men’s peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and association through music and film.