An Iranian rapper has been handed a death sentence for his involvement in protests against the government two years ago.
In 2022, the country was nudged into a state of political unrest following the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini. At the time of her passing, the 22-year-old was in police custody for not wearing a hijab. Her death sparked a wave of demonstrations in defiance of religious morality laws and authoritarian enforcement.
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The uprising grew into a pushback against the mistreatment of women across Iran, and 32-year-old Toomaj Salehi became one of the loudest voices calling out those in power through his music and social-media posts. This ultimately led to his arrest.
On Wednesday (April 24), his lawyer Amir Raesian tweeted (translated from Persian): “The death sentence has been issued for #Toomaj Salehi.”
حکم اعدام برای #توماج_صالحی صادر شده است.
جزییات در https://t.co/z4Kytzn1XM— امير رئيسيان AMIR RAESIAN (@amirreiis) April 24, 2024
The rapper was first arrested back in October 2022.
He was charged — and later found guilty — of “corruption on earth,” a crime that covers all offenses which the government believes “threaten social and political well-being.”
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In December 2022, authorities released a confession video in which the artist said: “Music can produce violence. I have made mistakes, I do apologize. I apologize to you and the society for any violence that I have instigated.”
The confession came weeks after he had been sentenced to death in November, and well ahead of the moment when Toomaj Salehi was allowed to hire a personal attorney on December 29.
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More than 500,000 supporters signed a petition for his release; which briefly came last year ahead of a second arrest. During his short-lived freedom, he revealed in a video that he was tortured and placed in solitary confinement for 252 days.
He is currently back in police custody and being held in the city of Isfahan.
Earlier this week, a court in the municipality reversed the higher Supreme Court’s ruling in said case by going back to the original verdict of “corruption on earth” in the MC’s case. As a result, he has been handed the maximum punishment of death.
Should Salehi choose to appeal the judgement again, his sentence could potentially be reduced by a pardoning committee.
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Fellow rapper Saman Yasin was also taken into police custody for his part in the uprising two years back and has reportedly been transferred to a psychiatric institution twice within the span of a year, according to IranWire. A court in Tehran sentenced the Kurdish-Iranian artist to five years in prison when he was first arrested.
