A rapper in Iran who rose to fame for his lyrics about the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 and for criticizing the Islamic Republic has been sentenced to death, his lawyer and human rights activists said on Thursday.
There is still confusion surrounding the death sentence handed down against Toomaj Salehi, a 33-year-old metal workshop worker, as neither the Iranian state news agency IRNA nor its judiciary have formally confirmed her. But the news quickly generated international criticism from the United States and United Nations experts, who pointed it out as a sign of Tehran’s continued crackdown on all dissent after years of mass protests in the country.
“Art must be allowed to criticize, provoke and cross the boundaries of any society,” an independent UN panel of experts on Iran said in a statement Thursday.
The news first broke on Wednesday after a report by pro-reform Iranian newspaper Shargh said that Salehi had been sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in Isfahana central Iranian city recently hit by an apparent Israeli attack. Revolutionary courts in Iran often involve closed-door hearings, secret evidence and few rights for the defendants.
Salehi’s lawyer, Amir Raisian, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had received notification of the death sentence against his client. Raisian said he planned to file an appeal.
Salehi’s case arises from the death of Amini in 2022 following her arrest by police for not wearing a hijab to her liking. United Nations investigators say Iran was responsible for Amini’s death and that it violently suppressed largely peaceful protests in a months-long security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and detained more than 22,000.
Salehi rapped about Amini in a video and said: “The crime of someone who was dancing with their hair in the wind”.
In another verse, he predicts the fall of the Iranian theocracy. “Your whole past is dark, the government that took the light from your eyes. …We go from the base of the pyramid and we reach the top. …Forty-four years of his rule, this is the year of failure.”
His other songs vulgarly criticized the all-volunteer Basij wing of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as well as making reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Salehi initially received a six-year prison sentence, but was released after Iran’s Supreme Court returned the case to the lower court for flaws in his original sentence.
Salehi was released on bail, but was then arrested again in November after saying in a video message that he was tortured after his arrest in October 2022. State media at the time published a video showing him blindfolded and apologizing for his words, a statement likely made under duress.
Iran’s judiciary did not recognize the death sentence, while IRNA referred to “reports” that it was received.
For a death sentence to be handed down following the reversal of a lesser sentence is highly unusual in Iran, possibly signifying how seriously the Iranian theocracy had taken Salehi’s comments. It also comes as other journalists, activists and musicians have been attacked since the “Women, Life, Freedom” demonstrations by Amini. An Iranian singer who won a Grammy presented by US first lady Jill Biden was sentenced to more than three years in prison for his anthem in support of the 2022 protests.
Activists immediately criticized the sentence.
“This grotesque manipulation of the judicial process is aimed at silencing dissent,” said Hadi Ghaemi of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. “Toomaj’s imprisonment is due to his outspoken defense against state oppression. “It is imperative that supporters of free speech and dissent unite to demand his immediate release.”
The sentence also generated criticism from Washington.
“This is just another example of the horrible and widespread human rights abuses by the Iranian regimeState Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Wednesday. “We once again condemn the Iranian regime’s use of the death penalty as a tool to suppress people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
(with information from AP)
