IRANIAN RAPPER TOOMAJ SALEHI GRANTED RETRIAL AS DEATH SENTENCE IS OVERTURNED

Iranian rap artist Toomaj Salehi has been granted a retrial as his death sentence for protesting against the government two years ago was overturned.

On Saturday (June 22), the MC’s lawyer Amir Raesian shared the news on Twitter in Farsi.

“As expected, the Supreme Court avoided an irreparable judicial error,” the post reads when translated to English. “The death sentence [Toomaj] was violated and based on the appeal decision of the 39th branch of the Supreme Court, the case will be referred to the parallel branch for consideration.”

He continued: “In its detailed ruling, the court branch, in addition to violating the death sentence, has reiterated that even the previous prison sentence (6 years and three months) did not comply with the rules of multiplicity of crimes and is contrary to Article 131 and is in excess of legal punishment.”

In 2022, Iran was nudged into a state of political unrest following the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini. At the time of her passing, the 22-year-old was in police custody for not wearing a hijab. Her death sparked a wave of demonstrations in defiance of religious morality laws and authoritarian enforcement.

The uprising grew into a pushback against the mistreatment of women across Iran, and 32-year-old Toomaj Salehi became one of the loudest voices calling out those in power through his music and social-media posts. This ultimately led to his arrest.

Earlier this year, in April, he was sentenced to death.

The rapper was first arrested back in October 2022. He was charged and later found guilty of “corruption on earth,” a crime that covers all offenses that the government believes “threaten social and political well-being.”

In December 2022, authorities released a confession video in which the artist said: “Music can produce violence. I have made mistakes, I do apologize. I apologize to you and the society for any violence that I have instigated.”

The confession came weeks after he had been sentenced to death in November, and well ahead of the moment when Toomaj Salehi was allowed to hire a personal attorney on December 29.

More than 500,000 supporters signed a petition for his release, which arrived ahead of a second arrest last year. During his short-lived freedom, he revealed in a video that he was tortured and placed in solitary confinement for 252 days.