Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to death for protesting against government
nme.comShargh and Entekhab.State media reported that his sentence could be reduced by a pardoning committee if he appeals again.Salehi had spent time in prison last year and was briefly released, but according to witness testimonies, he was violently rearrested and sent him to prison in Isfahan.
This happened after he revealed that he was tortured and placed in solitary confinement for 252 days following his arrest in October 2022, UN experts said in a statement published by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).Salehi isn’t the only artist to have been targeted for showing opposition to the government.
The Kurdish-Iranian rapper Saman Yasin, who was also arrested at the height of 2022’s protests in Iran, was taken to a psychiatric hospital twice in less than a year, per pro-reform news outlet IranWire.
A court in Tehran sentenced Yasin to five years in prison, according to Kurdish human rights group Hengaw.“We strongly condemn Toomaj Salehi’s death sentence and the five-year sentence for Kurdish-Iranian rapper Saman Yasin.
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