Iran’s top court has overturned the death sentence against popular rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was jailed for supporting the nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, his lawyer said on Saturday.
“Salehi’s death sentence has been overturned,” the rapper’s lawyer Amir Raisian said in a post on X, adding that the Islamic Republic’s supreme court had ordered a retrial.
In April, an Iranian court sentenced Salehi to death for the capital offense of “corruption on the ground,” Raisian said at the time.
The rapper was also found guilty of “assistance in rebellion, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the state and calling for riots,” the lawyer said.
Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly supporting protests that had erupted a month earlier, sparked by the death of Amini in police custody.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
“The Supreme Court prevented an irreparable miscarriage of justice,” Raisian said, adding that the court also ruled that Salehi’s “previous sentence (6 years and three months) was also out of compliance with the rules for multiple crimes.”
Months of protests sparked by Amini’s death have killed hundreds of people, including dozens of security personnel.
Thousands were arrested as authorities moved to quell what they called foreign-instigated “riots”.
In January, another singer, Mehdi Yarrahi who criticized the headscarf requirement for women was sentenced to a total of two years and eight months in prison on multiple charges, to be served concurrently.
The court later commuted Yarrahi’s sentence to house arrest due to health problems.
Nine men were executed in protest cases involving killings and other violence against security forces.
Neck and head coverings have been compulsory for women in Iran since 1983, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
After the protests, women have increasingly defied the strict dress code, but Iranian police in recent months have stepped up checks on women who ignore the rules.
Iranian media have reported in recent weeks that police in the capital have launched a campaign codenamed “Noor,” the Persian word for light, in an effort to double down on dress code violators.
In an attempt to crack down on those who flout the hijab laws, the authorities also shut down cafes and restaurants where the wearing of the hijab was not observed.
The country’s parliament also approved a draft “Purity and Hijab” law that seeks to tighten penalties for women who do not adhere to the dress code.
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