Iranian rapper sentenced to death: call for a rally in support of Toumaj Salehi this Sunday in Paris

Several organizations are calling for a rally in Paris on Sunday to demand the release of an Iranian rapper sentenced to death and an end to executions in Iran, in a column published on the website of the newspaper Libération.

The column, entitled “We must save rapper Toumaj,” calls for “abolishing the death penalty and releasing Iran’s prisoners of conscience and political prisoners.”

“More than 18 months after the popular uprising Women’s Life Freedom“Iranian authorities continue to suppress the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” write signatories, including ACAT (Action Christians to Abolish Torture), Iranian Justice, Amnesty International, the League of Human Rights… “Repression against women and young girls who ignore compulsory veil laws,” they add, also condemning “the use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression.

woman, life, freedom

33-year-old rapper Toomaj Salehi was arrested in October 2022. Through his songs and on social media, he supported the protest movement that emerged after the death in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd detained by the morality police who blamed him. in violation of the strict dress code established for women. This week he was sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in Isfahan for “corruption on earth.”

Several hundred people, including security forces, were killed and thousands arrested during protests in Iran in October and November 2022 before they died down. According to NGOs, nine people were executed in connection with the uprising. Iran widely uses the death penalty. Amnesty International recorded 853 executions in 2023, up 48% from 2022 and 172% from 2021.