Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-hijab protests

Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-hijab protests

An Iranian court has sentenced a dissident rapper to death for supporting protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

According to the reformist Shargh newspaper the artist’s lawyer Amir Raisian on Wednesday said, “Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court… sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth.”

Iranian Government had said it had proof that the U.S. and other Western countries were behind the protests that were held across the country over the death of Amini.

Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman, was arrested in September 2022 for not wearing her hijab properly. She died three days after her arrest, sparking violent protests in the country.

Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing the wave of demonstrations which erupted a month earlier, triggered by Amini’s death in custody.

Months of unrest following Amini’s death in September 2022 saw hundreds of people killed including dozens of security personnel. Thousands of people were arrested.

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The Revolutionary Court had accused Salehi of “assistance in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the system and calling for riots,” Raisian said.

The nation’s Supreme Court had reviewed the case and issued a ruling to the lower court to “remove the flaws in the sentence,” Raisian said.

However, the court had “in an unprecedented move, emphasised its independence and did not implement the Supreme Court’s ruling,” according to Raisian.

Raisian said that he and Salehi “will certainly appeal against the sentence.”

“The fact is that the verdict of the court has clear legal conflicts,” the lawyer was quoted as saying. “The contradiction with the ruling of the Supreme Court is considered the most important and at the same time the strangest part of this ruling.”

Nine men have been executed in protest-related cases involving killing and other violence against security forces.

Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-hijab protests