Protesters attend a demonstration against the death sentence of Toomaj Salehi, a famous rapper in Iran, and in support of Iranian women, in Berlin, Germany, on Sunday, April 28, 2024. Iran’s Supreme Court overturned Salehi’s death sentence on Saturday, June 22, 2024, his lawyer Amir Raisian said.
Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
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Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned the ruling death penalty by a government critic and prominent hip-hop artist, Toomaj Salehi – who is famous for his lyrics about death in police custody Mahsa Amini in 2022 – his lawyer Amir Raisian said on Saturday.
In a post on social media platform . He added that another branch of the court will now consider the case.
Salehi’s death sentence in April by the Revolutionary Court in the central city of Isfahan created confusion because even Iran’s state news agency IRNA and the judiciary did not officially confirm it. there. Such courts in Iran typically hold closed hearings with evidence presented by the Minister and grant limited powers to those on trial.
The news quickly drew international criticism from US and UN experts, who condemned it as a sign of Tehran’s continued crackdown on any dissent after years of mass protests.
Salehi was released from prison last November after serving a year on charges that his supporters said were based on the hip-hop artist’s music and involvement in protests that erupted in Iran after death of Mahsa Amini, 22 years old. detained by the country’s morality police after being detained for wearing a headscarf too loosely.
Salehi rapped about Amini in a video, saying: “Someone’s crime is letting their hair blow in the wind while dancing.” In another sentence, he predicted the collapse of the theocracy in Iran.
Shortly after his release last year, Salehi was sent to prison again after saying in a video message that he had been tortured after being detained in October 2022. State media at the time reported released a video showing him blindfolded and apologizing for his words, a statement that may have been made under duress. In late 2023, a court sentenced Salehi to more than six years in prison.
United Nations investigators say Iran is responsible for Amini’s death and that it has violently suppressed largely peaceful protests in a months-long security crackdown leaving more than 500 people dead and more than 22,000 detained.
