The Iranian authorities have deprived the rapper Toomaj Salehi of telephone communications, whose death sentence is causing strong protests around the world, his supporters on social networks indicated on Tuesday, reports AFP, according to Agerpres.
Toomaj Salehi, 33, who uses his first name as a stage name, was arrested in October 2022. He was sentenced to death last week for “corruption on earth” by the revolutionary court in Isfahan (center).
He supported, through his songs and on social networks, the protest movement launched after the death, on September 16, 2022, of the young Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd detained by the police for morals and who was accused of violating the strict dress code imposed on women.
“Toomaj’s permission to call has been removed in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan,” according to the account on the X (ex-Twitter) platform that bears his name and is now controlled by an administrator.
“This means that he no longer has any contact with his family and the outside world,” he added. “Furthermore, in order to exert maximum psychological pressure on him, all the detainees at Dastgerd are forbidden to talk to him and have been threatened with severe punishment if they do so,” notes the quoted source.
German MP Ye-One Rhie, who is actively following the case, posted this comment on X: “Let’s be clear: this is torture.”
The death sentence of the Iranian rapper was denounced last Thursday by France, Italy and experts of a UN working group. Demonstrations of support were organized this weekend in several cities around the world, especially in Toronto, Paris and Sydney.
According to UN experts, the rapper was initially sentenced to six years in prison, before the courts ordered his release. He was arrested again in November.
Tags: Iranian rapper Toomaj sentenced death country deprived phone
