Iran’s Supreme Court docket has overturned the demise sentence of a authorities critic and fashionable hip-hop artist, Toomaj Salehi, who rose to fame for his lyrics concerning the 2022 demise in police custody of Mahsa Amini, his court docket stated on Saturday. lawyer Amir Raisian.
In a submit on He added that one other courtroom will now evaluate the case.
The demise sentence imposed on Salehi in April by a Revolutionary Court docket within the central metropolis of Isfahan created confusion, as neither Iran’s state information company IRNA nor the judiciary formally confirmed it. These courts in Iran typically contain closed-door hearings with proof introduced by a clerk and grant restricted rights to defendants.
The information rapidly drew worldwide criticism from US and UN specialists, who condemned it as an indication of Tehran’s continued crackdown on all dissent after years of mass protests.
Salehi was launched from jail final November after spending a 12 months there on costs his supporters stated have been primarily based on the hip-hop artist’s music and his involvement in protests that erupted in Iran over the demise of Mahsa Amini. 22 years previous. Amini died within the custody of the nation’s ethical police after being detained for carrying her hijab too dishevelled.
Salehi rapped about Amini in a video and stated: “Somebody’s crime was dancing with their hair blowing within the wind.” In one other verse, he predicts the autumn of the Iranian theocracy.
Shortly after his launch final 12 months, Salehi was despatched again to jail after saying in a video message that he was tortured after his arrest in October 2022. State media on the time revealed a video exhibiting him along with his eyes blindfolded and apologizing for his phrases, a press release that was more likely to have been made below duress. Later, in 2023, a court docket sentenced Salehi to greater than six years in jail.
U.N. investigators say Iran was answerable for Amini’s demise and violently suppressed largely peaceable protests in a months-long safety crackdown that killed greater than 500 folks and detained greater than 22,000.
