TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have released on bail a popular rapper jailed for more than a year over supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody, local media have reported.
Toomaj Salehi, 32, was arrested in October 2022 after publicly backing the wave of demonstrations which erupted a month earlier, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Amini, an Iranian Kurd, who had been taken into custody over an alleged breach of strict dress rules for women.
In July, Salehi was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of “corruption on earth” — one of Iran’s most serious offenses which carries a maximum penalty of death.
The musician’s lawyer, Amir Raisian, told Iran’s reformist newspaper Shargh late Saturday that upon appeal, the Supreme Court had found “flaws in the initial sentence” and ordered that Salehi be “released from prison today on bail”.
An image posted overnight on Salehi’s official Instagram account shows him out of jail, holding a bouquet of white flowers.
The accusations against Salehi included spreading “lies on the Internet” and “propaganda against the state” as well as inciting people to violence and “having formed and managed illegal groups with the aim of disrupting security in cooperation with a government hostile” to Iran.
Iranian officials have labelled last year’s protests foreign-instigated “riots”.
Months of unrest following Amini’s death on September 16, 2022 saw hundreds of people killed including dozens of security personnel, and thousands more arrested.
Seven men have been executed in protest-related cases involving killing and other violence against security forces.
On Monday, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld a death sentence over the killing a Revolutionary Guards officer during the protests, according to the judiciary which did not identify the condemned man.
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Iran rapper jailed over backing protests freed on bail: media
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Iran rapper jailed over backing protests freed on bail: media
- Toomaj Salehi arrested in October 2022 after backing demonstrations triggered by the death of 22-year-old Amini, an Iranian Kurd
Turkiye holds military funeral for Libyan officers killed in plane crash
ANKARA: Turkiye held a military funeral ceremony Sunday morning for five Libyan officers, including western Libya’s military chief, who died in a plane crash earlier this week.
The private jet with Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad Al-Haddad, four other military officers and three crew members crashed on Tuesday after taking off from Ankara, Turkiye’s capital, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.
Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the ongoing, UN-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military.
The high-level Libyan delegation was on its way back to Tripoli, Libya’s capital, after holding defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.
Sunday’s ceremony was held at 8:00 a.m. local time at the Murted Airfield base, near Ankara, and attended by the Turkish military chief and the defense minister. The five caskets wrapped in their national flag were then loaded onto a plane to be returned to Libya.
The bodies recovered from the crash site were kept at the Ankara Forensic Medicine Institute for identification. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told reporters their DNA was compared to family members who joined a 22-person delegation that arrived from Libya after the crash.
Tunc also said Germany was asked to help examine the jet’s black boxes as an impartial third party
Libya plunged into chaos after the country’s 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi. The country split, with rival administrations in the east and west, backed by an array of rogue militias and different foreign governments.
Turkiye has been the main backer of Libya’s government in the west, but has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based government as well.
The private jet with Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad Al-Haddad, four other military officers and three crew members crashed on Tuesday after taking off from Ankara, Turkiye’s capital, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.
Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the ongoing, UN-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military.
The high-level Libyan delegation was on its way back to Tripoli, Libya’s capital, after holding defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.
Sunday’s ceremony was held at 8:00 a.m. local time at the Murted Airfield base, near Ankara, and attended by the Turkish military chief and the defense minister. The five caskets wrapped in their national flag were then loaded onto a plane to be returned to Libya.
The bodies recovered from the crash site were kept at the Ankara Forensic Medicine Institute for identification. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told reporters their DNA was compared to family members who joined a 22-person delegation that arrived from Libya after the crash.
Tunc also said Germany was asked to help examine the jet’s black boxes as an impartial third party
Libya plunged into chaos after the country’s 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi. The country split, with rival administrations in the east and west, backed by an array of rogue militias and different foreign governments.
Turkiye has been the main backer of Libya’s government in the west, but has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based government as well.
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