Rapper granted retrial after death sentence

An Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi, sentenced to death for supporting anti-government protests, has been spared. The Supreme Court of Iran has ordered a retrial. The positive news was reported by the man's lawyer, Amir Raesian.

The Iranian government takes a stringent approach to any form of protest. Iranian citizens have repeatedly attempted to challenge the regime, but their actions have been violently suppressed. The Iranian security forces are responsible for, among other things, the death of 16-year-old Nika Shakarami, who was assaulted before her death. Initially, the government claimed that the teenager had committed suicide. The widespread protests that engulfed Iran in 2022 claimed many lives among the country's citizens.

Toomaj Salehi is a dissident rapper who was sentenced to death on 24th April 2024 for participating in and publicly supporting the protests of 2022. The artist expressed words of support for the actions of Iranian citizens who took to the streets after the regime caused the death of Mahsa Amini. The woman was detained by the "morality police" for improperly wearing a hijab and was then taken to a reeducation centre, where she died.

The actions of Toomaj Salehi did not sit well with the Iranian government, which arrested the rapper and sent him to prison, where he was tortured. He was briefly released in 2023. The rapper openly talked about the loneliness and torture he experienced. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that Salehi had committed "corruption on earth" and sentenced him to the highest penalty - death.

New reports about the rapper bring hope. His lawyer, Amir Raesian, announced that the Supreme Court had overturned the death penalty. Instead, Salehi's case will be retried. The judges determined that "the previous prison sentence of six years and three months imposed on the artist violated the principles regarding multiple offences in Iran and exceeded the allowable penalty."

International social organisations are closely monitoring Toomaj Salehi's case. In their view, any sentence is an injustice because the rapper did not break the law but merely expressed his opinion about the government's actions.