Iranian Supreme Court annuls death sentence of rapper Tumaz Salehi convicted of treason and propaganda

The death sentence issued against rapper Toumaz Salehi for supporting the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested for wrongly wearing the Islamic veil, was annulled this Saturday by Iran’s Supreme Court, his lawyer, Amir Raisian, reported.

“The death sentence against Salehi has been canceled. As expected, the Supreme Court avoided an irreparable judicial error,” Raisian said on social networks

The source has said that Salehi’s case will be sent to another court to be “considered” again and assured that the Supreme Court believes that the initial sentence of six years and three months in prison against the musician was excessive.

Raisian reported in late April that the First Chamber of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Salehi to “the harshest punishment for corruption charges on earth, death,” for his support of the protests that began following Amini’s death in 2022.

The land corruption charges include a series of crimes against public security and Islamic morality, and Salehi’s case includes charges such as “treason, propaganda against the system and inciting riots”.

Following the death sentence, the rapper’s entourage has denounced on social media the increased “psychological pressure” against him and assured that they have cut off communications with the outside world in Isfahan’s Dustgard prison.

Arrest of Tumaz Salehi

The musician was arrested in late October 2022 on charges of “corruption on earth” and sentenced in July 2023 to six years and three months in prison, a sentence that was overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court, which has returned the case to the lower court to review the case again.

He was released on bail in November 2023, but was arrested again just eleven days later. He was sentenced to death in April, drawing strong international criticism.

The rapper and dissident has already clashed with authorities and was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine for “inciting violence and rebellion” in January 2022, although the prison sentence was suspended.

Amini’s death sparked strong protests that continued for months calling for the end of the Islamic Republic and only disappeared after a repression that left 500 people dead and at least 22,000 arrested, and in which eight protesters were publicly executed.

Many women have stopped wearing the veil following protests as a sign of civil disobedience and now the authorities have brought the so-called moral police back to the streets to re-enforce the use of the Islamic garment.