Iranian court sentences rapper to death for supporting protests

Toomaj Salehi, 33 years old, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly supporting the wave of protests that broke out a month earlier. Iran was then shaken by protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested by the “morality police” in Tehran on charges of “indecent clothing” for wearing an illegal hijab. Islamic.

Initial charges against Salehi included spreading “false information on the Internet” and “anti-state propaganda”, inciting people to violence, and “establishing and managing illegal groups with the purpose of destroying security breach when cooperating with a hostile government” with Iran.

Salehi was sentenced to 6 years in prison but was released on bail on November 18, 2023, after the Supreme Court discovered “errors in the original sentence”. The male rapper was arrested again less than two weeks later.

On April 24, the Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Salehi to death for “supporting rebellion, illegal assembly, anti-establishment propaganda and calling for riots”.

“This is an unprecedented move, when the Isfahan court did not implement the Supreme Court’s ruling. We will definitely appeal,” said the male rapper’s lawyer Amir Raisian.

According to lawyer Raisian, the Supreme Court, as an appellate body, reviewed the incident and asked the lower court to correct errors in the first instance judgment. The latest ruling of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court does not comply with this.

“In fact, the court’s judgment has clear legal contradictions, of which the most important and strange part is the contradiction with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” the lawyer said.

Iranian officials called the 2022 protests “riots” and accused “external enemies” of fomenting the unrest. Mehdi Yarrahi, a singer who supported the protest movement and criticized mandatory dress codes for women, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.

Nine men were executed in protest-related cases for murder and violence against Iranian security forces.

Huyen Le (According to AFP)