Folks maintain placards bearing portraits of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi (proper), who’s arrested in Iran, and portraits of kids (left), who had been killed through the protests in Iran, throughout a rally in help of Iranian girls in Istanbul, on Nov.26, 2022. Iranian authorities on Thursday, April 25, 2024, confronted strain to launch and clear Salehi sentenced to dying in a verdict supporters say is merely revenge for his music backing anti-government protests. YASIN AKGUL / AFP
PARIS — Iranian authorities on Thursday, April 25, confronted strain to launch and clear a outstanding rapper sentenced to dying in a verdict supporters say is merely revenge for his music backing anti-government protests.
Toomaj Salehi, 33, one of many best-known figures arrested in a crackdown on protests that started in 2022, dangers being hanged after the conviction on the sharia cost of “corruption on Earth” by a Revolutionary Courtroom.
The decision, which might nonetheless be appealed, surprised activists because the decrease court docket disregarded a transfer by the supreme court docket to overturn a jail sentence Salehi had been given on the identical cost.
“This grotesque manipulation of the judicial course of goals to silence dissent,” stated Hadi Ghaemi, the manager director of the New York-based Middle for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
“Toomaj’s imprisonment stems from his vocal advocacy in opposition to state oppression.”
Supporters used the hashtag #SaveToomaj on social media in a bid to create momentum for a world marketing campaign for his life to be spared.
“That is devastating information and we should all be outraged and do every little thing in our energy to #SaveToomaj. He’s a nationwide hero and treasure,” the Iran-born British actor Nazanin Boniadi wrote on X, previously Twitter.
The announcement of the dying sentence comes with Iran within the throes of a brand new crackdown in opposition to girls deemed to be flouting the Islamic costume code and likewise ratcheting up executions, which based on Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) have already reached 130 this yr.
The decision was introduced shortly after one other rapper arrested within the crackdown, Saman Yasin, who had initially been sentenced to dying by a decrease court docket, was sentenced to 5 years in jail, a time period to be served in exile within the jap Kerman province.
“We name for his or her rapid launch. These are the most recent examples of the regime’s brutal abuse of its personal residents, disregard for human rights, and concern of the democratic change the Iranian folks search,” stated the workplace of the deputy US particular envoy for Iran, Abram Paley.
‘Desperation’
The French overseas ministry stated it strongly condemned the “unacceptable” verdict in opposition to Salehi, saying it “comes on prime of quite a few different dying sentences and unjustifiable executions linked to the 2022 protests in Iran.”
International Minister Antonio Tajani of Italy stated he “strongly condemns” the decision.
9 males have been executed in protest-related instances involving killings and different violence in opposition to safety forces. Rights teams have stated the trials have been grossly unfair.
At the very least six different males stay at imminent threat of execution after being given dying sentences in instances linked to protests, based on IHR.
Salehi was arrested whereas in hiding in October 2022 through the peak of the protest motion sparked by the dying in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old arrested by Iran’s morality police for an alleged breach of strict costume guidelines for girls.
The months of protest following Amini’s dying on Sept. 16, 2022, noticed tons of of individuals killed together with dozens of safety personnel, and hundreds extra arrested.
Rights teams say Salehi was subjected to torture and ill-treatment, pressured to repent on digital camera and denied medical remedy and entry to his lawyer.
Salehi was subsequently launched on bail after spending over a yr behind bars however was rearrested lower than two weeks later after saying he was tortured in detention. He’s at present believed to be held within the central metropolis of Isfahan.
“Issuing the dying penalty for expressing opinions and creating creative works is an indication of the desperation of the Islamic Republic regime and its concern of fashionable protests,” stated IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
Ten UN consultants, who’re impartial of the United Nations, stated they had been “alarmed by the dying sentence and the alleged ill-treatment of Mr Salehi.”
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“Artwork should be allowed to criticize, to impress, to push the boundaries in any society,” they stated in an announcement.
