Iran: Rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to death, says lawyer

Popular Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to death over his role in supporting the protest movement triggered by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh Daily reported quoting the musician's lawyer. 

"Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court ... sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth," the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian told the newspaper. 

The charge covers a broad range of offenses including those related to Islamic morality and can carry the death penalty.

Salehi, 33, was arrested for showing support for anti-government protests, following the death of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022. He had also written songs about the protests.

What is Salehi accused of?

The court "in an unprecedented move, emphasized its independence and did not implement the Supreme Court's ruling", Raisian said, adding that "we will certainly appeal against the sentence".

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

The Iranian judiciary has not confirmed the sentence yet. Salehi has 20 days to appeal the ruling.

Salehi was freed on bail on November 18, Raisian said at the time, adding the Supreme Court had found "flaws in the initial sentence" of six years in prison. The rapper was rearrested less than two weeks later.

In the months of unrest that followed Amini's death on September 16, 2022, hundreds of people were killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands more were arrested.

Iranian officials called the protests "riots" and accused Tehran's foreign enemies of fomenting the unrest.

dh,rm/wmr (AFP, Reuters)