Iran’s Supreme Court overturns death sentence against Toomaj Salehi

Iran’s Supreme Court has now ordered a retrial, Raesian said, adding that the judges had ruled that Salehi’s previous prison sentence of six years and three months – on charges of “spreading corruption on earth” – “violated Iran’s rules on multiple offenses and went beyond the legal punishment.”

The Iranian news agency ISNA also reported on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Salehi’s death sentence. The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Post early Sunday.

Salehi was taken into custody in October 2022 after publicly supporting the protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, which occurred when she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress code for women. The weeks-long protest The movement, which united different parts of Iranian society and posed a major challenge to Iran’s religious leadership, was ultimately stifled by the country’s authoritarian system.

Salehi released two songs in support of the protests, one of which quoted the slogan used by protesters: “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Another, titled “Prophecy,” includes the line: “Someone’s crime was that her hair danced in the wind.”

Salehi, a rare and outspoken voice of resistance in Iran, was an inspiration for the protest movement. He was one of several prominent figures arrested in Iran during the crackdown on protests against Amini’s death. Human rights groups say at least 500 people were killed and tens of thousands arrested in the crackdown.

Salehi was temporarily released from prison in November 2023, but was rearrested less than two weeks later after saying in a video that he had been tortured and held in solitary confinement.

When Salehi’s case was heard by the Supreme Court, he asked the lower court to drop some of the charges against him. But a Revolutionary Court, part of Iran’s parallel justice system, took back jurisdiction and sentenced him to death in April – a move condemned by human rights groups, United Nations experts and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

A coalition of human rights groups defending Salehi welcomed the move by Iran’s Supreme Court.

“This is clear evidence of the injustice of the lower court’s decision and we are delighted that Salehi no longer faces execution. The Supreme Court found that the death sentence imposed on Salehi was excessive and inconsistent with Iranian law,” Index on Censorship, the Human Rights Foundation and Salehi’s lawyers said in a statement released on Saturday.

Negin Niknaam, one of Salehi’s closest confidants and the person who manages his social media accounts from Germany, said the death sentence had put “tremendous psychological pressure” on Salehi, his friends and his family. “They wasted a year of his life in prison. And now they’ve just taken away his death sentence,” she told the Post. “It’s not like we’re all celebrating this.”

“Toomaj’s soul was violated, our mental state was violated – all for a sentence that should never have been imposed,” she added.

Since the protests over Amini’s death, the authorities have tightened their control over Iranian society even further. Shortly after the first anniversary of the protests, Iran’s parliament passed a bill that would impose harsher penalties on those who violate women’s dress codes, which include the mandatory wearing of a hijab (head scarf). An Iranian constitutional council sent the bill back to parliament for review late last year.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes less than a week before Iran’s presidential election to determine the successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month. Some activists and supporters of the protest movement have called for a boycott of the election.

Salehi’s case will now be sent back to the lower court that originally sentenced him to death – Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court of Isfahan – so he can receive a new verdict, the Index on Censorship statement said. The group called on the court to respect the rapper’s rights in the proceedings.

“Even a shorter prison sentence would be unfair: Salehi has done nothing other than demand respect for his and other Iranians’ fundamental rights,” it said.

Miriam Berger and Susannah George contributed to this report.