Protesters attend a rally against the death sentence of Toomaj Salehi, a popular rapper in Iran, and in support of the women of Iran, 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 death sentence of a government critic and a popular hip-hop artist, Toomaj Salehi — who became famous for his lyrics about the 2022 death in police custody of Mahsa Amini — his lawyer Amir Raisian said Saturday.
In a post on social media platform He added that another branch of the court will now hear the case.
Salehi's death sentence in April by a Revolutionary Court in the central city of Isfahan caused confusion as even Iran's state news agency IRNA and the judiciary did not formally confirm it. Such courts in Iran often involve closed-door hearings during which evidence is produced and give limited rights to those on trial.
The news quickly drew international criticism from United States and United Nations experts, who condemned it as a sign of Tehran's continued crackdown on all dissent after years of mass protests.
Salehi was released from prison last November after spending a year there on charges that his supporters say were based on the hip-hop artist's music and participation in the protests that broke out in Iran following the 22-year-old's death Mahsa Amini. custody of the country's vice squad after she was arrested for wearing her hijab too loosely.
Salehi rapped Amini in one video, saying, “Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind.” In another verse he predicts the demise of the Iranian theocracy.
Shortly after his release last year, Salehi was sent back to prison after saying in a video message that he had been tortured following his detention in October 2022. State media at the time released a video showing him blindfolded and apologizing for his words, a statement believed to have been made under duress. Later in 2023, a court sentenced Salehi to more than six years in prison.
United Nations investigators say Iran was responsible for Amini's death and that the country violently suppressed largely peaceful protests in a months-long security crackdown that left more than 500 people dead and more than 22,000 arrested.
