An Iranian rapper who was sentenced to loss of life for supporting anti-government protests has been launched from jail after two years.
Toomaj Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after publicly supporting protests that erupted throughout Iran following the loss of life of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
His loss of life sentence was overturned in June and he was launched from jail on Sunday “after serving his sentence” of a yr for propaganda in opposition to the state, Iran’s judiciary-run Mizan information company reported.
Mr Salehi, 34, boldly criticised Iran’s leaders in his music and was already banned from acting at concert events previous to his arrest.
He was sentenced to 6 years and three months in jail in July 2023, after avoiding a loss of life sentence resulting from a Supreme Courtroom ruling.
Mr Salehi was briefly launched on bail earlier than being rearrested days later for sharing “false claims with out proof” – seemingly a reference to a video he posted claiming to have been “tortured” by intelligence ministry brokers.
He was sentenced to loss of life in April 2024 for the capital offence of “corruption on earth”, although this was later overturned.
The rapper had been charged with a string of offences, together with spreading lies in our on-line world, disruption of public order and propaganda in opposition to the institution.
Index on Censorship, a marketing campaign group that had been working to free the rapper, welcomed his launch and stated Mr Salehi “ought to by no means have been imprisoned to start with”.
His arrest got here on the peak of nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s loss of life.
The 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish lady was detained by the spiritual police whereas visiting Tehran along with her household for allegedly sporting an “improper” hijab.
Lots of have been killed and 1000’s arrested in the course of the unrest that adopted.
