Margaret Atwood, Sting and Coldplay are among more than a hundred cultural figures who have called for the death sentence on the Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi to be quashed and for his release from prison.
A revolutionary court in Salehi’s home town of Isfahan sentenced him to be hanged for supporting anti-regime protests after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not wearing a hijab.
For several years the 33-year-old metal worker has been critical in his music of the ruling clerics. He was arrested in 2022 and charged with “corrupting the earth”. He has been held in solitary confinement and claims to have been tortured in prison.
A statement calling for his death sentence to be rescinded immediately and
