Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi is at risk of execution after a Revolutionary Court in Esfahan sentenced him to death in April 2024 solely in relation to his participation in the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising and social media posts critical of the Iranian authorities, Amnesty International warned on Thursday.
The rapper has been detained, held in solitary confinement, and was allegedly tortured following his arrest.
“His trial was grossly unfair, and authorities dismissed his complaints of torture, including electric shocks, death threats and repeated beatings resulting in bone fractures and vision impairment in one eye,” said the watchdog.
Salehi, 32, who has been critical of the Iranian regime and outspoken against the government in rap lyrics and on social media, was briefly released from prison last year before police violently rearrested him and sent him to prison in Isfahan, witnesses said at the time.
He was rearrested after appearing in a video where 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).
Another artist, Kurdish-Iranian rapper Saman Yasin, who was also arrested at the height of 2022’s protests in Iran, was transferred to a psychiatric hospital two times in less than a year, according to pro-reform news outlet IranWire.
A court in Tehran sentenced Yasin to five years in prison, according to Hengaw.
