A rapper in Iran has been sentenced to death for his lyrics about the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini and criticizing the Islamic Republic, his lawyer and rights activists said Thursday.
Confusion surrounds the death sentence issued against 33-year-old metal shop worker Toomaj Salehi, as even Iran's state-run IRNA news agency and its judiciary did not formally confirm it. However, the news quickly drew international criticism from the United States and United Nations experts, who pointed to it as a sign of Tehran's continuing crackdown on dissent following years of mass protests in the country.
"Art must be allowed to criticize, to provoke, to push the boundaries in any society," a panel of the U.N.'s independent experts on Iran said in a statement Thursday.
Word first spread Wednesday after a report by Iran's pro-reform Shargh newspaper said Salehi had been given a death sentence by a Revolutionary Court in Isfahan, a central Iranian city recently targeted by an apparent Israeli attack. Revolutionary Courts in Iran often involve closed-door hearings, secret evidence and few rights for those on trial.
Salehi's lawyer, Amir Raisian, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had received notice of the death sentence against his client and planned to file an appeal.
Salehi's case stems from Amini's death in 2022 after her arrest by police for not wearing a hijab to their liking. United Nations investigators say Iran was responsible for Amini’s death, and that it violently put down largely peaceful protests in a monthslong security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained.
Salehi rapped about Amini in one video, saying: "Someone’s crime was dancing with her hair in the wind."
In another verse, he p