An Iranian court sentenced Iranian rapper Amir Tataloo to death on appeal after he was found guilty of “blasphemy”local media reported on Sunday, January 19. “The Supreme Court accepted the prosecutor’s appeal” against a previous sentence of five years’ imprisonment, and “this time the accused was sentenced to death for insulting the prophet” Mahomet, reported the reformist newspaper Advances on his site. The judgment is not final and may be subject to a new appeal, added the same source.
Aged 37, the singer and composer was one of the pioneers of rap in Iran, where he began his career in the early 2000s. He moved to Istanbul in 2018 after not obtaining a license musical activity of the Iranian authorities.
“Obscene content”
In December 2024, justice announced that the artist had been handed over to Iran by Turkey on the order of a revolutionary court in Tehran. His trial opened in March 2024, notably on the grounds of“encouraging the younger generation to prostitution”of “propaganda against” the Islamic Republic and “distribute obscene content in the form of clips and songs”.
Before his departure for Turkey, Amir Tataloo was arrested several times, notably in 2016 for having “disturbed public opinion”. Tattooed from head to toe, the rapper sparked controversy in 2017 when he met ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raïssi, who died in a helicopter accident in May 2024. In 2015, he wrote a song to support the nuclear program Iranian during the conclusion of an agreement on this subject between Tehran and the international community.
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