Iran’s top court overturns rapper Salehi’s death sentence, says lawyer

Iran’s supreme court has overturned a death sentence against popular rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was jailed for backing nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, his lawyer said.

“Salehi’s death sentence was overturned,” the rapper’s lawyer Amir Raisian wrote on X on Saturday.

He said the Islamic republic’s top court had ordered a retrial.

In April, an Iranian court sentenced Salehi to death for the capital offence of “corruption on earth”, Mr Raisian said at the time.

He was also found guilty of “assistance in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the state and calling for riots”, the lawyer said.

Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing demonstrations which had erupted a month earlier over the death in custody of Ms Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was detained by morality police in Tehran over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women.

He was given a prison sentence of six years and three months in July last year after the Supreme Court intervened to prevent a death sentence. However, the Isfahan Revolutionary Court brought additional charges against him in January, in addition to those he had been acquitted of earlier, leading to his death sentence.

“The Supreme Court prevented an irreparable judicial error,” Ms Raisian said, adding that the court also ruled that Salehi’s “previous sentence was also without compliance with the rules of a multiplicity of crimes”.

Hundreds of people were killed during the months-long protests sparked by Ms Amini’s death, including dozens of security personnel.

Thousands were arrested as authorities moved to quell what they branded foreign-instigated “riots”.

In January, another singer, Mehdi Yarrahi, who criticised the law requiring women to wear headscarves in public, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on multiple charges, which would have been served concurrently.

The court later changed Yarrahi’s sentence to home confinement due to his health issues.

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

Covering the neck and head has been compulsory for women in Iran since 1983, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Women have been increasingly flouting the strict dress code since the protests but Iranian police have been increasing its enforcement in recent months.

Iranian media recently reported that police in the capital have launched a campaign called “Noor”, the Persian word for light, to take action against offenders. The authorities have also shut down cafes and restaurants where the wearing of the hijab was not respected.

The country’s parliament has also approved a draft “Chastity and Hijab” law that seeks to toughen penalties on women not adhering to the dress rules.

With reporting from agencies

Updated: June 22, 2024, 2:07 PM