(Beirut) – An Iranian court issued a death sentence against popular rapper Toumaj Salehi who was jailed on speech-related charges, Human Rights Watch said today. The legal proceedings and sentence against Salehi, 33, are a brutal and vicious attack on basic liberties and the right to a fair trial.
He said Amir Raisian, Salehi’s lawyer, told Shargh newspaper on April 24, 2024 that the First Branch of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced his client to death on charges of “spreading corruption on earth “. In November 2023, Canceled Iran’s Supreme Court sentenced Salehi to six years in prison in this case, the case returned to the court of first instance, and they released him on bail. Iranian security forces arrested Salehi 12 days later.
“Iran’s Revolutionary Court judges are acting as if they have the right to attack citizens’ basic rights and eliminate any legal protections that exist,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch’s latest expose of Iran’s brutal judicial system.” He must be released immediately.”
On October 30, 2022, I was arrested The authorities violently removed Salehi, a musician and violent critic of the government, amid protests following the death of an Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Gina Amini, while in moral police custody on the a month before. The authorities arrested Salehi in solitary confinement, and charged him with several charges, including corruption on the ground, a vague charge that could carry the death penalty. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that government security forces i hit Salehi is in custody.
On 10 July 2023, the first branch of the Revolutionary Court in Isfahan ruled that the level of the accusation of “spreading corruption on the ground” against Salehi was not proven, And management on that place Six years imprisonment under Article 286 From the “Islamic Penal Code”. Article 286 punishes crimes that affect national security or violate public order on a large scale with imprisonment of up to five years, or death if they reach the level of corruption on the ground.
On November 18, two presidents told a newspaper East Salehi was released on bail after the court overturned the decision and returned the case to the court of first instance. After he was arrested again on November 30, authorities opened a new case against him because he accused investigators of mistreating him in a video posted on -line. On January 1, Hrana reported that Salehi was sentenced to a year in prison and a two-year travel ban as punishment in the new case.
On April 18, contract The first branch of the Revolutionary Court in Isfahan, a new trial for me. Two leaders said that the authorities She added The case was brought to trial, and the court eventually convicted him and sentenced him to death on charges of “spreading corruption on earth.” Raisiyan said the ruling was marred by major legal errors, which ‘ including his conflict with the ruling of the High Court, adding the intention to appeal the decision.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is cruel and irreversible.
Since the suspension of the protests, Iran’s judicial authorities have dramatically increased the use of vague national security charges against protesters, which could be punished by death, for acts of including destruction of public property. Authorities issued 25 death sentences in connection with the protests after grossly unfair trials in which many defendants were unable to obtain a lawyer of their choice. By April 2024, the government had executed eight people in connection with the protests, while the Supreme Court suspended another 11 death sentences.
Among the Detainees During the protests, Iranian Kurdish rapper Saman Sidi, known as “Yassin”, was executed on charges of “hostility to the state”, including “possession of weapons and conspiracy to threaten national security” “, but the Supreme Court suspended the sentence. On April 21, Hrana reported that Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced Sidi to five years in prison.
“The Iranian government has made unfair courts a cornerstone of suppressing popular dissent,” Sepehrifar said.
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2024-04-25 04:18:13
