Dozens of artists, including Sting and Coldplay, are calling for the release of an Iranian rapper sentenced to death

Activists for human rights, together with 100 artists from the music field, including Sting and the band Coldplay, demand through a petition the release of the Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, sentenced to death for supporting the mass protests in Iran in the fall of 2022, transmits Friday, May 10, Agerpres.

“Salehi’s death sentence is the culmination of three years of judicial harassment, including arrest, imprisonment and torture,” the London-based Index on Censorship petition said.

The Iranian rapper drew attention to the human rights situation in Iran in many of his songs.

Salehi was honored in October 2023 with the Freedom of Expression Award by the Index on Censorship.

“Art must be allowed to criticize, challenge, question and challenge authority. 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,” the petition signatories claim.

Salehi’s death sentence was announced at the end of April. The news sparked outrage in Iran and other countries around the world.

Salehi has been accused of supporting mass protests in Iran since the fall of 2022.

The rapper had previously criticized, in his lyrics, the social and political problems in the country.

“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,” Barschak told The Guardian, adding that everyone should be talking about this.

Also a signatory of the petition, activist Elli Brazzill from the British group Art Not Evidence, said that protest music has been censored around the world for thousands of years. “But to be sentenced to death for this is simply unimaginable,” she said.

Toomaj Salehi, 33, who 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 court in Isfahan (central ).

He supported the protest movement launched after the death of young Mahsa Amini

The rapper 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.

The death sentence of the Iranian rapper was denounced in April by France, Italy and experts of a UN working group. Demonstrations of support were organized 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.