Iran's Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of an anti-regime rapper who supported nationwide protests, the rapper's lawyer said, reversing an April ruling that had drawn widespread criticism and anger from human rights groups and others.
Amir Raessian, the lawyer for rapper Toumaj Salehi, said in a post on X that by overturning the verdict, the court “avoided an irreparable judicial error.” He added that the court had found that Salehi's six-year, three-month prison sentence was excessive and would send the case back to a lower court for a new trial.
Salehi, 33, was one of the most visible voices during nationwide protests against Iran's clerical rulers following the death two years ago of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody. Amini was arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly violating Iranian rules on wearing headscarves.
Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after releasing music critical of the government and encouraging his supporters to take part in the protests sparked by Amini's death.
The following month, Iranian authorities accused Salehi of “spreading corruption on earth,” and in July 2023, a court sentenced him to more than six years in prison in a closed trial. He was banned from making music or singing for two years, according to State Department documents.
Iran's Supreme Court ruled that the sentence was flawed and Salehi was released in November 2023, but he was rearrested less than two weeks later and charged with “propaganda against the state,” according to UN experts. Human rights groups have also said Salehi was tortured in prison.
After Salehi was sentenced to death in April, writers, singers and other artists signed an open letter published by freedom of expression group Index on Censorship calling for his release.
“We stand in solidarity with Toumaji Salehi,” the letter said. “We demand that his death sentence be immediately and unconditionally revoked, that all other charges be dropped, and that he be released from custody without delay.”
The New York-based independent advocacy group, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, called the death sentence “a new low in Iran's crackdown on dissent.”
According to the rights group Amnesty International, Iran accounts for 74 percent of the world's recorded executions, and in June the group called for Salehi's sentence to be overturned. “For too long, the Iranian government has used the death penalty to instill fear in the Iranian people and strengthen its grip on power,” the group wrote at the time.
Austrian lawmaker Helmut Brandstätter, who has supported Salehi, called for the rapper's release on Sunday after reports that the death sentence had been overturned.
“For years I have followed his fate in horror. He was imprisoned and tortured simply for showing solidarity with the women of Iran,” Brandstetter said on social media, adding that “he must be released.”