An Iranian court sentenced to death a popular rapper imprisoned more than a year and a half ago for supporting the massive protests over the death of a young woman in police custody, local media reported this Wednesday. Toomaj Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 for the content of his songs and, although he was released on bail in November 2023, he was arrested again days later, accused of “spreading false claims” after publishing a 14-minute video in which he reported that he had been tortured during his stay in prison.
“Section 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court Salehi was sentenced to death accused of corruption on Earth“explained the singer’s lawyer, Amir Raisian. The court, “in an unprecedented gesture, highlighted his independence and did not apply the Supreme Court ruling“who rejected the ruling against him, denounced the lawyer, adding that”We will surely appeal the sentence.”. “The Supreme Court, as the appellate authority, reviewed the case and issued a ruling to the lower court to remove the defects in the ruling,” he explained, adding: “The fact is that The court’s verdict has clear legal contradictions“.
“The contradiction with the Supreme Court ruling is considered the most important and at the same time the strangest part of this ruling,” said the lawyer and explained that The Revolutionary Court accused Salehi of “collaboration in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the system and calling for riots.” He was also accused of “enmity toward God.” and the lawyer noted that when Salehi was released on bail on November 18, the Supreme Court had found “defects in the initial sentence” of six years in prison.
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Initial accusations against Salehi included spreading “lies on the Internet” and “propaganda against the State”, as well as inciting violence and “having formed and managed illegal groups with the aim of disrupting security in cooperation with a government hostile” to Iran. For its part, Mahsa Aminithe young Iranian Kurdish woman who died in the hands of the police, had been detained by Tehran’s moral police for an alleged violation of strict dress standards for the women of the Islamic Republic.
In the months of unrest that followed Amini’s death on September 16, 2022, hundreds of people died, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands more were arrested. Another singer, Mehdi Yarrahi, who supported the protest movement and criticized mandatory dress standards for women, was sentenced to a total of two years and eight months in prison.
Demonstrations in Iran by Toomaj Salehi and Mahsa Amini
Iranian officials called the protests “riots” and accused Tehran’s foreign enemies of fomenting them. Nine men have already been executed in cases related to protests that involved murders and other acts of violence against security forces. Likewise, after Amini’s death, a growing number of women began to appear in public across the country without respecting the dress code and the morality police had kept a low profile.
However, Since April 13, the Iranian police began to tighten controls on women who ignore the rules by deploying patrols in the main squares of Tehran. Local media reported that the capital’s police had launched a campaign codenamed “Noor”, which in Persian means light, redoubling efforts against those who violate the dress code, known as hijab, which forces women to Cover your head, hair and body in public places. The authorities have also closed cafes and restaurants where the use of the hijab was not respected.
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“Outrageous”: the statement from the NGO Human Rights Watch
La ONG Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the “outrageous” death sentence of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi and called for his immediate release. The NGO criticized the judicial process and the sentence imposed on the 33-year-old young man as “a cruel and outrageous attack on fundamental freedoms and the right to a fair trial“.
“Toomaj Salehi’s outrageous verdict is the latest manifestation of the brutal Iranian justice system“said Human Rights Watch Iran researcher Tara Sepehri Far. In a statement, the organization accused the Iranian government of making “unfair courts a cornerstone of its fierce repression of popular dissent” and denounced that they act “as if they were empowered to attack the basic rights of citizens and flout any existing legal safeguards.”
ML / ED