Activists for human rights, along with 100 artists from the musical field, among which he is counted extinguished and the formation Coldplay, I am asking for the release of the Iranian rapper through a petition Toomaj Salehi, sentenced to death for supporting mass protests from Iran since the fall of the year 2022, according to Agerpres.
His death sentence Salehi it is the culmination of three years of judicial harassment, including arrest, imprisonment and torture, according to the organization’s petition Index on Censorship, based at London.
The Iranian singer drew attention to the human rights situation in Iran in many of his songs.
Salehi was awarded the Freedom of Expression award
In October 2023, Salehi was awarded the prize Freedom of Expression Award by Index on Censorship.
“Art must be allowed to criticize, challenge, question and challenge authority,” the petition signatories claim.
“No artist should be subjected to any type of judicial harassment for exercising his right to freedom of expression, let alone be sentenced to death,” they added.
His death sentence Salehi was announced at the end of April. The news sparked outrage in Iran and in other countries around the world.
The authorities made the decision after what Salehi was accused of supporting the mass protests of Iran since the fall of the year 2022.
Previously, the rapper criticized the social and political problems in the country in his lyrics.
“To be sentenced to death for this is simply unimaginable”
Composer and pianist Tamara Barschak appealed to other artists to join the petition. “The fact that this poor musician is facing execution for expressing his beliefs is appalling,” he said. Barschak for the publication The Guardian, adding that everyone should talk about this.
Also signatory of the petition, activist Elli Brazzill from within the British group Article Not Evidence, stated that protest music has been censored worldwide for thousands of years. “But to be sentenced to death for this is simply unimaginable,” she said.
Toomaj Salehi, at the age of 33 years oldwho uses his first name as a stage name, was arrested in October 2022. He was sentenced to death in April for “corruption on earth” by the revolutionary tribunal from Isfahan (center).
He supported, through his songs and on social networks, the protest movement launched after the death, at September 16, 2022, of the young woman Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd detained by the police for morals and who was accused of violating the strict dress code imposed on women.
The death sentence of the Iranian rapper was denounced in April France, Italy and experts of a working group UN. Demonstrations of support were organized in several cities around the world, especially in Toronto, Paris and Sydney.
According to experts UN, the rapper was initially sentenced to six years in prison, before the courts ordered his release. He was arrested again in November.
Tags: Coldplay Sting demand release rapper Iran sentenced death
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