Security Agents Seal Off 'Studio Pat' Office Belonging to Two Political Activists

The office of Studio Pat, owned by Hossein Razag and Mehdi Mahmoudian, was sealed off by security agents. On Thursday, March 14, Hossein Razag told Radio Farda that all the equipment of this studio was 'the lifeblood of him and Mehdi Mahmoudian, which has been confiscated along with the office of this media outlet.' Studio Pat is a platform established by Mehdi Mahmoudian, a civil activist imprisoned in Evin, and Hossein Razag, which has published analytical and controversial discussions and interviews on social media over the past five months. The notice of the office's sealing states, 'This business unit has been sealed due to non-compliance with public place regulations,' but Mr. Razag told Radio Farda that prior to the establishment of this studio, he and his colleagues had been 'under severe pressure and threats from the Ministry of Intelligence, and they had been told that they would not be allowed to operate.' Bahman Ahmadi Amoui, Jahangir Kootari, and Hossein Sarabandi are other collaborators of Studio Pat. According to Mr. Razag, the immediate execution of Mehdi Mahmoudian's prison sentence was also in line with these pressures. Mehdi Mahmoudian went to Evin Prison on February 4 to serve his sentence. He had reported on social media that his sentence was executed earlier than scheduled, while he was supposed to report to prison a month later. Hossein Razag stated that after the publication of Studio Pat's interview with Hatam Ghaderi, a well-known Iranian sociologist, he was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence and threatened that 'we will definitely dig up that place and return you to prison. They threatened that they would create problems for Mehdi as well in that prison.'