The sentence was announced by Amir Raesian, the rapper's defense attorney, who has been in custody for over a year and a half for supporting the protest movement.

Hundreds of people died during the protests that followed the death, on September 16, 2022, of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, three days after she was arrested by the morality police for allegedly not respecting the very strict dress code imposed on women in Iran.

"The revolutionary court of Isfahan [...] sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death for corruption on Earth", one of the most serious accusations in Iran, said the singer's lawyer, Amir Raisian, quoted by the newspaper Shargh, adding that he will appeal the decision.

The lawyer explained that the court considered the accusations of sedition, collusion and propaganda against the system and incitement to riots against Salehi as examples of "corruption on earth" and therefore sentenced the musician to death.

The accusation of corruption on Earth covers a series of crimes against public security and Islamic morality.

Raeisian considered that the sentence "is unprecedented" and announced that he will appeal the decision.

Salehi was arrested in late October 2022 and charged with "corruption on earth" for supporting the protests triggered by Amini's death.

In July 2023, another revolutionary court sentenced Salehi to six years and three months in prison, a sentence that was rejected on appeal by the Supreme Court, which returned the case to a lower court for further consideration.

In November 2023, Salehi was released on bail, but he ended up being arrested again just eleven days later.

The rapper and dissident, known by his first name - Toomaj -, has clashed with the authorities in the past and was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine in January 2022 for "inciting violence and insurrection", although the prison sentence was suspended.

The singer Shervin Hajipour was also sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for "propaganda against the system and incitement to riots" for his song "Baraye" (Stop), which became the anthem of the protests.

Amini's death sparked strong protests that for months called for the end of the Islamic Republic and only disappeared after a crackdown that caused 500 deaths and the arrest of at least 22,000 people and in which eight protesters were executed, one of them in public.

Many women stopped wearing the veil after the protests as a gesture of civil disobedience and now the authorities have brought the so-called Morality Police back to the streets to re-impose the use of Islamic dress.

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