Protesters attend a rally towards a dying sentence given to Toomaj Salehi, a well-liked rapper in Iran, and to help to the ladies of Iran, in Berlin, Germany, on Sunday, April 28, 2024. Iran’s Supreme Courtroom overturned Salehi’s dying sentence on Saturday, June 22, 2024, his lawyer Amir Raisian stated.
Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
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Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s Supreme Courtroom overturned the dying sentence of a authorities critic and a well-liked hip-hop artist, Toomaj Salehi — who got here to fame over his lyrics concerning the dying in police custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022 — his lawyer Amir Raisian stated Saturday.
In a submit on social media platform X, Raisian stated that the courtroom assessed the case and located Salehi’s previous six years in jail as “extreme” for the reason that punishment was greater than what was allowed by legislation. He added that one other department of the courtroom will now evaluate the case.
Salehi’s dying sentence in April by a Revolutionary Courtroom within the central metropolis of Isfahan created confusion as even Iran’s state-run IRNA information company and the judiciary didn’t formally verify it. Such courts in Iran typically contain closed-door hearings with proof produced secretary and provides restricted rights to these on trial.
The information shortly drew worldwide criticism from the US and United Nations consultants, who condemned it as an indication of Tehran’s persevering with crackdown towards all dissent following years of mass protests.
Salehi was launched from jail final November after spending a yr there on fees that his supporters stated have been based mostly on the hip-hop artist’s music and participation within the protests that broke out in Iran over the dying of Mahsa Amini, 22. Amini died within the custody of the nation’s morality police after being detained for carrying her hijab too loosely.
Salehi rapped about Amini in a single video, saying: “Somebody’s crime was dancing together with her hair within the wind.” In one other verse, he predicts the downfall of Iran’s theocracy.
Shortly after his launch final yr, Salehi was despatched to jail once more after saying in a video message that he was tortured after his detention in October 2022. State media on the time launched a video exhibiting him blindfolded and apologizing for his phrases, a press release more likely to have been made below duress. Later in 2023, a courtroom sentenced Salehi to greater than six years in jail.
United Nations investigators say Iran was answerable for Amini’s dying, and that it violently put down largely peaceable protests in a monthslong safety crackdown that killed greater than 500 individuals and noticed over 22,000 detained.
