Baha’i Musician Arrested in Tehran

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Source: www.humanrightsiniran.org

Translation by Iran Press Watch

Behnam Rouhanifard, an Iranian Baha’i and singer-composer from Tehran, has been arrested by security forces.

According to a human rights watchdog in Iran, Mr. Rouhanifard was arrested on 03 September, 2017.  An informed source told Payam News: “After following Behnam Rouhanifard on the street and arresting him, security agents searched his house and took him to the Evin Prison.”  Security agents filmed their search of Mr. Rouhanifard’s house, from the moment of their entry until their departure. This informed source added, “There were eight agents present at the time of taking Rouhanifard. They told his family they could inquire about his status at Evin Prison’s Third Branch of the Shahid Moghadas Courthouse, on the same day.”

Mr. Rouhanifard had been interrogated by airport security agents earlier this month upon his return to Iran from a singing tour of Europe, on July 04, 2017. At that time his private property, including passports, mobile phones, laptops, and books, were seized by authorities. Despite subsequent efforts by Mr. Rouhanifard to retrieve his seized property, the items have not been released to him.

Mr. Rouhanifard has been subjected to previous arrests, and in October 2009 was sentenced to nine months imprisonment in Iran on charges of reciting Baha’i songs. He served his sentence in Yazd Prison.

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