According to local media, Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi was released on bail after more than a year in prison for supporting the movement to challenge the regime in the country.
Amir Raisian, the 32-year-old musician’s lawyer, told Iranian newspaper Shargh that Toomaj Salehi was released from prison on Saturday following a ruling by Iran’s Supreme Court.
In a photo published on the rapper’s Instagram page on Saturday, he can be seen holding a bouquet of white flowers.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Toomaj Salehi | توماج صالحی (@toomajofficial)
The popular rapper was arrested in October 2022 and sentenced to six years and three months in prison for “propaganda against the system”, “disrupting security”, “incitement to violence” and “collaboration with states hostile to the Islamic Republic”.
The musician was convicted for expressing support in his songs and on social media for the protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2021.
The young Kurdish woman died after being detained by Iranian customs police and taken to a “re-education center” for allegedly not wearing the Islamic veil (‘hijab’), in accordance with current regulations.
Three days later, while still in police custody, she emerged dead, a situation that sparked nationwide protests.
Under the slogans “woman, life, freedom”, thousands of demonstrators called for the end of the theocratic regime in Iran, in protests that resulted in 500 deaths, including seven executed (one in public), and thousands detained.
Toomaj Salehi, who called on Iranians to protest against the regime, also faced the death penalty, but was ultimately sentenced to a lighter sentence.
Several foreign artists expressed their solidarity with the musician.
Salehi’s rap, himself of Bakhtiari ethnicity, focuses on Iran’s multi-ethnic makeup and encourages unity among Iranians of different ethnic backgrounds.
“None of us have different colored blood,” the musician wrote at the time of the protests. “Don’t forget our incredible union and don’t let it sow division between us,” he urged on Instagram.
Source: DN
