DUBAI –
Iran’s judiciary confirmed the death sentence of well-known Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, but added that he is entitled to a reduced sentence, state media reported Thursday.
Salehi’s lawyer, Amir Raisian, told the Sharq newspaper on Wednesday that an Iranian Revolutionary Court had sentenced his client to death on charges related to the 2022-2023 unrest in Iran.
Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of nationwide protests, sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman arrested for wearing the “wrong” hijab.
On Thursday, the judiciary’s media department upheld Salehi’s death sentence based on charges of “corruption on earth,” adding that the verdict entitled the defendant to a reduced sentence due to “his expression of remorse and cooperation with the authorities”.
Salehi has 20 days to appeal his sentence to the Supreme Court. If the sentence is confirmed, the judiciary’s amnesty commission would review his case to potentially commute his sentence, the judicial media department added.
In 2023, Iran’s Supreme Court rejected Salehi’s accusations of “corruption on earth”, a capital crime under Iran’s Islamic laws. However, the sentence has not been implemented, in what Salehi’s lawyer described as “an unprecedented measure” by the judiciary.
The hashtag #FreeToomaj has been trending on social media platforms such as X, with users calling for Salehi’s immediate release.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom. Editing by Gerry Doyle)