Extra Fine For Iranian Footballer In 'Hugging' Scandal As World Slams Case

On death row, his fearless dissent has seen the young artist sentenced to death in Iran's continuing flurry of executions in the wake of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom, movement, sparked by the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini for the alleged improper wearing of her headscarf.

One of Salehi's most famous political songs, "Buy a Rat Hole" in 2021, long before the death of the young Kurdish woman, addresses the corruption of Iranian authorities and the impunity of their actions. "You are a murderer if you cover up murder. To cover up murder, you must step in blood," he sang, his words even more poignant after state security forces murdered more than 500 Iranians in the wake of September 2022's uprising.

According to political analysts such as Majid Mohammadi, Toomaj's songs represent “the sentiments of a generation of young Iranians who ardently and persistently seek the regime's downfall", sentiments which rock the regime as it faces the harshest opposition since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

He was first arrested in September 2021 when twelve intelligence ministry agents raided his home in Isfahan. Thousands of Iranians condemned his imprisonment on social media, and Amnesty International called for his immediate release in a statement released on September 17. Later that month, Salehi was released on bail.

During the height of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests on October 30, 2022, the intelligence ministry in Isfahan province violently arrested him again for his artistic activities in favor of the anti-government movement. While in custody, he was tortured severely and forced to make televised "confessions".

Toomaj was sentenced to 75 months in prison last July after the Iranian Supreme Court effectively ruled out the possibility of a death sentence. More than a year after being arrested, he was released on bail in November. Several days after his release, he fearlessly published a video message detailing the torture and mistreatment he had endured at the hands of regime intelligence agents. Almost immediately, he was re-arrested.

On Wednesday, an Iranian revolutionary court sentenced 33-year-old Salehi to death for charges linked to the 2022 nationwide protests, charges his lawyer claimed he was acquitted of earlier.

Salehi, dubbed the “world’s bravest rapper” by Western media, has a 20-day appeal period. His lawyer, Amir Raeisian, said they will challenge the ruling.

"I talked to Toomaj. He hopes to see the changes to this sentence in the legal process," Raeisian told Roydad24 in an interview on Thursday, adding that Salehi is “not worried.”

Salehi's case has touched the hearts of politicians around the world who have come out to condemn the death sentence amid soaring numbers of executions in Iran, over 800 last year alone.

Reacting to his sentence on Wednesday, US Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said: “This is just another example of the Iranian regime's horrific and pervasive human rights abuses. We once again condemn the Iranian regime's use of the death sentence as a tool to suppress people's human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Abram Paley, US Deputy Special Envoy for Iran, also wrote on X “We strongly condemn Toomaj Salehi’s death sentence and the five-year sentence for Kurdish-Iranian rapper Saman Yasin. We call for their immediate release.”

“These are the latest examples of the regime’s brutal abuse of its own citizens, disregard for human rights, and fear of the democratic change the Iranian people seek,” the US official added.

German MEP Max Lucks, advocate of sanctioning Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the EU, said Toomaj’s execution would be a “declaration of war on the young progressive voices in Iran,” he wrote on X. “The death sentence against him [Toomaj] shows the mullahs' contempt for the people of Iran.”

French Senator Nathalie Goulet wrote on X in French: "Toomaj Salehi has been sentenced to death. We must demonstrate to save his life."

“What kind of government kills its own children?” She tweeted in Farsi.

Gohar Eshghi, whose son Sattar Beheshti, a blogger, was killed under torture in prison in 2012, called “Toomaj the son of all Iranians” and condemned the "brutal sentence" against him.

Hamed Esmaeilion, an opposition activist in Canada, also said they will take to the streets over the weekend to support Salehi.

Large crowds rallied in European cities such as Frankfurt and Milan, on Wednesday and Thursday to call on their governments to halt the execution.

Social media platforms including X, have been trending with the hashtag #FreeToomaj, calling for his release. Videos circulating online show posters of him on the walls and highways inside Iran.

Taraneh Alidoosti – best known for the Oscar-winning movie "The Salesman" - was arrested as part of the Woman Life Freedom movement sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who reportedly defied the hijab rule.

The news of her illness started when her mother during an Instagram Live on Sunday hinted that her daughter might have an “undiagnosed disease” which Iranian media reported as DRESS Syndrome.

Cinema Etemad, in an article that has since been removed from the website, defined the condition as "causing numerous symptoms such as fever, blood abnormalities and organ inflammation throughout the body” and is associated with “overreaction to certain medications.”

Security forces arrested Alidoosti in December 2022 at her home for posting a photo of herself without the mandatory veil on social media and criticizing the death penalty. A month later, she was released on bail.

On Wednesday, Zahra Minuei, Taraneh Alidoosti’s lawyer, confirmed the reports while emphasizing that Alidoosti did not wish the public to be aware of the disease.

“Taraneh Alidousti has been diagnosed with DRESS Syndrome since August 2023, which doctors said was caused by drug interaction,” Minuei wrote on X. “Mrs. Alidousti is currently making a partial recovery after a long treatment period,” she added.

However, that was not an isolated incident. Mostafa Al-Ahmad’s lawyer said on April 23 that the filmmaker “like other activists, has been suffering from some kind of autoimmune disease ever since he was released from prison.”

“Human rights activists are worried by the recurrence of these diseases,” Maryam Kianersi wrote on X.

In July 2022, Mostafa Al-Ahmad was arrested as part of a crackdown on the signatories of the "Lay down the gun" letter issued by over 100 members of the film industry in Iran.

The statement urged military and security forces not to suppress protesters as a wave of demonstrations spread across Iran after a 10-story building collapsed in Abadan, south of Iran, killing at least 40 people.

The cases of Alidoosti and Al-Ahmad in recent days have brought the issue of the illnesses and unexplained deaths of political prisoners into the spotlight once again. The authorities often attribute suspicious deaths or suicides in prisons and detention centers, or shortly after prisoners' release, to mental health or personal issues.

Taliban and Iranian officials have not yet commented about the guards, who claim they had entered the Afghan territory "by mistake." They were arrested in Farah province in southwestern Afghanistan. Thursday night, Iranian state media reported that they were freed.

The Iranian government and Taliban have been involved in several border disputes over the past months. Clashes at the border over water rights in May claimed the lives of at least two Iranians and one Taliban soldier.

The situation has recently been tense in Iran’s eastern borders as the insurgent Sunni Baluch group known as Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) intensified its operations against Iranian security forces. The group advocates for enhanced rights and improved living conditions for the Baluch ethnic minority.

Earlier in the month, six law enforcement officers were killed by Jaish al-Adl militants during an ambush on police vehicles along the Sib and Suran county route in Sistan-Baluchistan province. The week before, the group also launched simultaneous attacks against military posts in Chabahar and Rask, killing 16 police forces; the clashes also claimed the lives of 18 Jaish al-Adl militants.

Jaish al-Adl has also been a source of tension between Iran and its nuclear neighbor, Pakistan, for years. In January, the IRGC attacked positions in Pakistan in what it called an attempt to target terrorists. Pakistan retaliated by attacking locations in southeastern Iran.

Towering the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, the billboard demonstrates the phrase “The end of the Ayatollah’s regime in Iran” in Hebrew, English and Persian. Underneath the inscriptions is an hourglass which symbolizes the downfall of the Iranian government in the near future.

The billboard has been erected by “Jerusalem Prayer Team,” a US organization whose aims are to “guard, defend, and protect the Jewish people” and raise funds to “meet humanitarian needs of the Jewish people in Israel,” according to its website.

“Hundreds of millions of Evangelicals have Israel’s back. Israel, you’re not alone,” read the statement written at the bottom of the billboard.

Likewise, “Jerusalem Prayer Team” published a similar announcement in Israel Hayom daily on Monday, warning that “all who have lifted their hands against Israel are in the dust pan of history.”

Erecting a billboard promising the downfall of the Islamic Republic resembles similar state-sponsored moves in Iran over the past years. In 2015, Ali Khamenei said Israel must be destroyed in 25 years and the government set up a countdown clock in Tehran and a few other cities.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen sharply over the past weeks. On April 1, Israel launched a precision missile strike on Iran's consulate building in Damascus, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the top commander of the IRGC Quds Force. In retaliation, Iran launched on April 13 its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles.

Early Friday, Israel reportedly targeted Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base in reprisal for Iran’s operation. Though satellite images and reports indicate that a major defense system in the airbase was damaged, Iranian officials and state media have unanimously played down the operation.

The US Treasury Department in a statement said the action, taken in coordination with the United Kingdom and Canada, targets over one dozen entities, individuals and vessels it accused of playing a key role in facilitating and financing the clandestine sale of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).

MODAFL in turn supports Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Russia's war in Ukraine, the Treasury said.

“Iran’s Ministry of Defense continues to destabilize the region and world with its support to Russia’s war in Ukraine, unprecedented attack on Israel, and proliferation of UAVs and other dangerous military hardware to terrorist proxies,” Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said.

Washington also targeted two companies and a vessel involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities, the Treasury said.

“The United States, in close coordination with our British and Canadian partners, will continue to use all means available to combat those who would finance Iran’s destabilizing activities," Nelson said.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement, "The Iranian regime's dangerous attack on Israel risked thousands of civilian casualties and wider escalation in the region.”

"Today the UK and our partners have sent a clear message – we will hold those responsible for Iran's destabilizing behavior to account.

Britain also said it would introduce new bans on the export of drone and missile components to Iran, seeking to limit its military capabilities.

Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Treasury said it targeted Sahara Thunder, accusing it of being a main front company that oversees MODAFL's commercial activities in support of the IRGC and Russia's war in Ukraine.

It said the company plays a key role in Iran's design, development, manufacture and sale of thousands of drones, many of them ultimately transferred to Russia for use against Ukraine.

As of 2022, Russian officials were negotiating a deal for Sahara Thunder to deliver and produce thousands of drones per year at a facility in Russia under U.S. sanctions, the Treasury said.

Sahara Thunder's leadership and shipping network, which the Treasury said the company relied on for the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities on behalf of MODAFL to jurisdictions including China, Russia and Venezuela, were also targeted.

An Iran-based company involved in the procurement and development of unmanned aerial vehicles, its leadership and an Iranian cargo airline were also among those hit with sanctions.

The US earlier this month had warned it would impose further sanctions on Iran following its unprecedented attack on Israel.

Washington has since taken measures, including targeting Iran's drone program, steel industry and cyber actors.

Iran this month launched more than 300 drones and missiles against Israel, its first direct attack on the country, in retaliation for a suspected Israeli air strike on its embassy compound in Damascus on April 11 that killed elite military officers.

(Reporting by Reuters)