FALCON POWERS – Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence handed down against the well-known rapper Toomaj Salehi, who has been imprisoned for more than a year and a half for supporting the protest movement that erupted in 2022, his lawyer announced on Saturday.
Lawyer Amir Raeisian said on the X platform that “the death sentence has been cancelled” on the rapper, adding that the Supreme Court has ordered a new trial. He confirmed that “the Supreme Court has prevented a judicial error”.
The Revolutionary Court in Isfahan (central Iran) had sentenced the singer, who uses his first name as his stage name, to death on charges of “corruption on earth”, one of the most serious charges in Iran. His lawyers had appealed the sentence.
The sentence sparked strong protests around the world and within the artistic community in the country.
Demonstrations in support of Salehi were organized in several cities around the world, including Toronto, Paris and Sydney.
Supporters of the young artist also launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #SaveToomaj.
In Geneva, independent UN experts expressed “concern” about the rapper’s death sentence and the “ill-treatment he is alleged to have suffered” during his detention.
“Incitement to sedition” –
The 33-year-old rapper was arrested in October 2022 and imprisoned in the Dastgerd prison in his hometown of Isfahan province, before being initially sentenced to six years and three months in prison on charges of “corruption on earth”.
He was released in November 2023, before being re-arrested about ten days later. The rapper had supported through his songs and on social media the protest movement that erupted in 2022 following the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for not complying with dress rules.
The Revolutionary Court accused Salehi of “incitement to sedition, gathering, conspiracy, propaganda against the system and calling for riots”, according to the lawyer.
Foreign artists had at the time expressed their support for Salehi.
Hundreds of people, including security forces, were killed, and thousands were arrested during the protests in October and November 2022 in Iran, before the intensity subsided.
Iran executed nine people convicted of supporting the protests, according to non-governmental organizations.
In April, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Iranian authorities to rescind the death sentence against the rap singer, urging for his “immediate and unconditional release”.
