Toomaj Salehi, one of Iran's most prominent rappers, has hit out at the treatment of three fellow artists whom Iranian police videos showed shirtless with shaved heads giving what appeared to be forced confessions on alleged crimes.
Police broadcast videos of Arash Sayyadi, Ashkan Shekariyan-Moghadam and Rassam Sohrabi confessing to "disrupting public order" and "rap dissing" online.
The rappers also directed their apologies to “security and judicial agents, the agents of the Second Base of the Intelligence Organization and the Tehran District 5 Prosecutor’s Office,” the video said.
Toomaj Salehi, who faced a death sentence during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement but was later released, expressed abhorrence of the scene.
“The issue isn’t who these three are or what they did; the main question is who allowed those agents, after frightening and pressuring someone, to shave his head and force him to stand before a camera reading from a script?” Salehi posted on Instagram.
Rights groups accuse Iran uses forced confessions as a tool of repression, often broadcast on state television. The most recent case occurred in August, when coerced statements from Christian converts were aired.
Salehi also delivered forced confessions on Iranian state media in which he admitted inciting sedition and riots. He later denied the accusations in a YouTube video released in November 2023 after his release.
Arash Sayyadi, who goes by the stage name Eycin and Rassam Sohrabi have been subject to prior arrests, human rights website HRANA said, without elaborating. It offered no background information on Ashkan Shekariyan-Moghadam, known as Ashkan Leoo.
Iranian hip-hop faces severe censorship, repression, and arrests, which force some artists to record and distribute their music underground to avoid state scrutiny.
The reports cite export data allegedly taken from Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned Rostec Corporation.
The documents, published online by hacker group Black Mirror in early October, list Iran under customer code “364” for a package of 48 Su-35 multirole fighters.
“The leaked tables show Iran’s Su-35 package valued at more than €5–6 billion once full airframe and weapons systems are included,” Defense Security Asia said.
The leak also included “48 heads-up display systems and electronic-warfare components, confirming the 48-aircraft figure linked to Iran’s order,” the report added.
A separate defense blog said the files contain “detailed pricing, delivery schedules, and export plans for advanced Sukhoi fighter jets destined for several foreign clients — including Iran, Algeria, and Ethiopia.”
The material, it said, was “published online on October 3 by the hacker collective Black Mirror, which claims to have accessed more than 300 internal documents from Rostec’s systems.”
Deliveries and local assembly plans
The leaked export tables outline a multi-year schedule, with shipments of avionics and electronic-warfare systems for the Iranian jets between 2024 and 2026.
Full aircraft deliveries are expected from 2026 through 2028.
Defense Security Asia wrote the leak “suggests Russia may go beyond simple export delivery -- offering semi-knocked-down assembly in Iran through a local aerospace partner, possibly under the Iran Aviation Industries Organization.”
Unverified details in the same tranche say Russian technicians from Sukhoi and KRET have been stationed in Iran since early 2024 to oversee assembly preparations.
“This arrangement could allow Iran to assemble 48 to 72 units over several years, creating its first near-indigenous fourth-plus-generation fighter production line since the 1970s,” the outlet said.
Iranian lawmakers confirm fighter and missile purchases
Iranian officials have recently discussed the arrival of Russian aircraft. Lawmaker Abolfazl Zohrevand said on October 1 that Russian MiG-29s had already entered Iran as what he called a short-term solution, adding that “for long-term solutions, Su-35s will gradually enter.”
He also said, “The HQ-9 system is entering substantially and the S-400 likewise.”
Another lawmaker, Fada Hossein Maleki, said in September that Iran’s general staff “is pursuing the purchase of air-defense systems from China and Russia.”
Moscow’s reliability questioned inside Iran
Some senior figures have voiced skepticism about Russia’s commitment. Mohammad Sadr, a member of Iran’s Expediency Council, said Moscow “was willing to sell S-400 systems to Turkey, a NATO member, but has still not provided them to Iran.”
“Russia has a particular inclination toward Israel and for a long time there has been talk of buying Su-35s, while Russia has built higher models, but even this it does not give us,” he added.
The conservative daily Farhikhtegan reported that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently carried a “message of reproach” from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s performance during the 12-day war.
If the leaked Rostec files are genuine, the Su-35 deal would mark Iran’s largest military procurement in decades, deepening its strategic dependence on Russia.