Iran arrests 5 musicians over dissident contacts
Wednesday - 1/9/2013, 5:00pm ET
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian police have arrested five members of an underground band suspected of producing music for Farsi-speaking, dissident satellite channels based in the U.S.
The semiofficial Fars news agency quotes senior police official Col. Sadeq Rezadoost as saying the band was producing songs for Los Angeles-based Iranian singers and providing videos to Farsi-speaking, dissident TV channels.
The Wednesday report says the five have been handed over to the judiciary for trial. It did not name the band.
Women-only groups are banned in Iran, and Western music is rejected as "decadent." Many Iranians turn to underground bands to get bootleg videos of foreign-based singers.
Contact with foreign-based dissident media outfits is also banned in Iran.
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