Atlanta [US], December 1 (ANI): A previously detained Iranian rapper, Toomaj Salehi has been rearrested in northern Iran on Thursday, less than two weeks after his release from prison, CNN reported citing his official social media channel.
The rapper, previously detained for over a year, spending a majority of that time in solitary confinement was violently arrested while walking down a street in the city of Babol on Thursday.
The Iranian dissident has been arrested on grounds related to supporting the widespread protest movement in Iran last year.
Local sources and witnesses said that Salehi and his acquaintances were met by a group of armed men, who without identifying themselves, repeatedly struck the rapper with the ends of their rifles before blindfolding him and taking him into custody, they added, CNN has reported.
Nationwide protests started in mid-September last year, triggered by the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini in custody. The woman died after being detained by the “morality police” and taken to a “re-education centre,” allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.
Civil unrest ran rampant against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Salehi, 32, had expressed support online and in his songs for Amini’s death and called for Iranians to protest against the government.
After his arrest in October 2022 at the height of the protests, he was sentenced to six years and three months in prison, being released on bail on November 18 from a prison in Isfahan. Salehi’s attorney had successfully appealed in Isfahan’s Revolutionary Court, according to CNN citing Iran’s pro-reform news outlet Shargh Daily.
The attorney had reportedly filed a complaint citing Salehi’s treatment in detention, reported Shargh, claiming that the authorities were not providing proper medical care for his client’s broken leg.
The Supreme Court also took into consideration the general amnesty order announced by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February when granting the appeal for Salehi’s case, reported CNN.
Salehi recorded a video detailing his treatment whilst incarcerated.
“I was tortured a lot during my detention,” Salehi says in the video, posted on social media. He described how he was repeatedly struck in the head and face, and claimed his fingers were broken as he tried to protect his face from blows.
“It’s not a pleasant thing to explain, but it continued for a long time,” he says.
The Iranian judiciary news agency Mizan said that Salehi was arrested for making false claims publicly on social media without supporting documentation, on Thursday. The statement said that Salehi was charged with spreading lies and disturbing public opinion.
Salehi, who is of Bakhtiari ethnic background, has long rapped about Iran’s multi-ethnic makeup, encouraging unity among Iranians of different backgrounds, CNN has reported. (ANI)
