Iran sentences rapper to death for backing protests, state media reports

An Iranian court has sentenced to death a popular rapper jailed for more than a year and a half for supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, local media reported Wednesday.

Toomaj Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing the wave of demonstrations that erupted a month earlier, triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Amini.

The Iranian Kurdish woman had been detained by the morality police in Tehran over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress rules for women.

Salehi was sentenced in 2023 to six years and three months in prison. But he was freed on bail on November 18, the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian said at the time, because the Supreme Court had found "flaws in the initial sentence" of six years in prison.