Lawyer Denies Reports On Commuting Iranian Rapper’s Sentence

The lawyer of Toomaj Salehi, the imprisoned rapper protesting against the Iranian regime, has denied reports about the commutation of his sentence.

The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday that Salehi's sentence had been commuted from execution to imprisonment due to his "active cooperation" with authorities.

However, Roza Etemad Ansari told Sharq daily that the report was untrue, stressing that the case is "in progress" and has not been closed yet.

The artist who has become an icon of the latest unrest has been detained for more than 240 days, and in late June, his trial was held behind closed doors. He could face the death penalty.

Salehi, 33, is an artist mostly known for his protest songs about Iran's social issues and injustice by the government and was arrested on October 30th as part of the crackdown on opponents in the wake of mass uprisings across the country. 

His arrest came shortly after his interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, calling the regime "a mafia that is ready to kill the entire nation... in order to keep its power, money and weapons.”

In his politically charged songs such as “Buy a Rat Hole” (2021), he spoke out against repression, injustice, poverty, and authorities’ own corruption and impunity from prosecution.

On June 22, representatives of the German, Austrian, New Zealand, and Italian parliaments, who have become Salehi's political sponsors, announced that the court proceedings concerning the singer's charges were held 230 days after his arrest without media coverage or official notification.