A rally will take place on Sunday in Paris to demand the release of an Iranian rapper sentenced to death

Toomaj Salehi, 33, supported the protest movement after the death of Mahsa Amini. He was sentenced to death this week for “corruption on earth.”

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People gather to obtain the release of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi and all other Iranian political prisoners, on Place de la Bastille, in Paris, May 14, 2023. (CLAIRE SERIE / HANS LUCAS)

We must save rapper Toomaj.” This is the title of the column published by several organizations on Friday April 26, which calls for a rally in Paris on Sunday to demand the release of an Iranian rapper sentenced to death and an end to executions in Iran. She demands “the abolition of the death penalty and the release of Iranian prisoners of conscience and political prisoners”we can read in the columns of Libération.

“More than 18 months after the popular ‘Woman Lives and Freedom’ uprising, Iranian authorities continue to further suppress the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” write the signatory organizations, including ACAT (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture), Iran Justice, Amnesty International, the Human Rights League…

Toomaj Salehi, 33, sentenced to death for “corruption on earth”

“Repression is intensifying against women and girls who defy laws on the compulsory wearing of the veil” they castigate, also denouncing “the use of the death penalty as an instrument of political repression”. Iran practices capital punishment on a large scale. Amnesty International has recorded 853 executions in 2023, an increase of 48% compared to 2022 and 172% compared to 2021.

Rapper Toomaj Salehi, 33, was arrested in October 2022. He had supported, via his songs and on social networks, the protest movement triggered after the death in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd detained by the vice squad. Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to death this week by a revolutionary court in Isfahan for “corruption on earth”.


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