Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the death sentence imposed on dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, his lawyer announced Saturday. The news was confirmed by Salehi’s lawyer, Amir Raisian, on X. Raisian said that, through this decision, the Iranian Supreme Court avoided an “irreparable judicial error”.
Salehi had been detained since October 2022 for speaking out and participating in protests against the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old was killed while in police custody for failing to wear a head covering, which is required of women by Iranian religious law. During the period of unrest in the country, Iran’s legal system cracked down on protestors and public figures like Salehi. Many protestors, like 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari, were executed by the authorities.
After Salehi’s arrest, he was charged with “corruption on Earth,” which carries the death penalty, as well as “propaganda against the state,” “collaboration with hostile governments,” and other offenses punishable by one to ten years in prison. Toomaj was segregated from all other inmates in Dastgerd Prison, a maximum security facility run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Iranian government initially denied Salehi the right to legal representation as well as the right to prepare a defense in accordance with the charges leveled against him but later allowed him access to a lawyer.
Following the release of a video by state media showing Salehi with bruises on his face and a blindfold covering his eyes while apologizing for his words, the rapper’s family members and supporters alleged instances of torture that were used to obtain a false confession. His family also revealed that the state withheld his location from them in the early days of his detention and that police purposefully misled his father by giving him the wrong directions.
The overturning of Salehi’s death sentence comes as Iran prepares for an important legislative election on June 28. The elections are being held a year early due to political turmoil since the deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash in May.
