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Toomaj Salehi: Iranian rapper freed from prison after two years

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An Iranian rapper who was sentenced to dying for supporting anti-government protests has been launched from jail after two years.

Toomaj Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after publicly supporting protests that erupted throughout Iran following the dying of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

His dying sentence was overturned in June and he was launched from jail on Sunday “after serving his sentence” of a 12 months for propaganda towards the state, Iran’s judiciary-run Mizan information company reported.

Mr Salehi, 34, boldly criticised Iran’s leaders in his music and was already banned from acting at concert events previous to his arrest.

He was sentenced to 6 years and three months in jail in July 2023, after avoiding a dying sentence resulting from a Supreme Court ruling.

Mr Salehi was briefly launched on bail earlier than being rearrested days later for sharing “false claims without evidence” – seemingly a reference to a video he posted claiming to have been “tortured” by intelligence ministry brokers.

He was sentenced to dying in April 2024 for the capital offence of “corruption on earth”, although this was later overturned.

The rapper had been charged with a string of offences, together with spreading lies in our on-line world, disruption of public order and propaganda towards the institution.

Index on Censorship, a marketing campaign group that had been working to free the rapper, welcomed his launch and mentioned Mr Salehi “should never have been imprisoned to begin with”.

His arrest got here on the top of nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s dying.

The 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish lady was detained by the spiritual police whereas visiting Tehran together with her household for allegedly carrying an “improper” hijab.

Hundreds have been killed and hundreds arrested in the course of the unrest that adopted.

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