Dissident Rapper’s Death Sentence Overturned in Iran, His Lawyer Says

Iran’s supreme court has overturned the death sentence of a dissident rapper who backed nationwide protests, according to his lawyer, reversing an April decision that had brought widespread criticism and outrage from human rights organizations and others.

Amir Raesian, the lawyer for the rapper, Toomaj Salehi, said in a post on X that by overturning the sentence, the court “avoided an irreparable judicial error.” He added that the court found that Mr. Salehi’s earlier prison sentence of six years and three months to be excessive, and that the case would be sent back to a lower court for review.

Mr. Salehi, 33, was one of the most prominent voices during the nationwide protests against Iran’s clerical rulers two years ago after the death in police custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini. Ms. Amini had been arrested after the country’s morality police said she had violated Iran’s rules on head scarves.

Mr. Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after he released music criticizing the government and encouraged his followers to participate in demonstrations touched off by the death of Ms. Amini.

The next month, the Iranian authorities charged him with “spreading corruption on earth,” and in July 2023, a court sentenced Mr. Salehi to more than six years in prison after a closed-door trial. He was also banned from producing music or singing for two years, according to a State Department document.

Iran’s Supreme Court found issues with that ruling, and Mr. Salehi was released from prison in November 2023, but he was rearrested less than two weeks later and charged with “propaganda against the state,” according to U.N. experts. Human rights groups have also said that Mr. Salehi has been tortured in prison.