PARIS —
The family of an Iranian rapper detained for supporting protests over
Mahsa Amini’s death said his life was at risk after he went on trial behind
closed doors on Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
Iran has intensified a crackdown on the protests
sparked by the September 16 death of Amini after her arrest in Tehran for
allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress code for women.
Toomaj Salehi, well known on Iran’s rap scene, was
arrested late last month after denouncing the regime and showing support for
the protests, human rights groups said.
“Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi had the first day of
his so-called ‘trial’ today in Tehran without a lawyer of his choice,” the New
York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said on Twitter.
His family tweeted that his “life is at serious risk
right now” as he faced charges of “enmity against God” and “corruption on
earth” — sharia-related charges that are capital crimes in the Islamic
republic.
Salehi had disappeared at the end of October before
appearing in a video published on November 2 by Iran’s state-run media.
The video claimed to show the first images of Salehi
after his arrest.
It depicted a tattooed man in a sleeveless black
T-shirt sitting on the ground, wearing a blindfold, and looking bloodied and
bruised.
The man says: “I am Toomaj Salehi. I said I made a
mistake. I said ... that you should run. I didn’t mean you.”
Activists condemned the recording as a forced
confession extracted under duress.
Salehi is one of a number of prominent figures to be
arrested in a mass crackdown that has seen dozens of journalists, lawyers,
civil society and cultural figures arrested.
His detention came shortly after he gave an
interview highly critical of the regime to the Canadian Broadcasting
Cooperation.
“You are dealing with a mafia that is ready to kill
the entire nation... in order to keep its power, money and weapons,” Salehi
said in the interview.
Iranian state media claim Salehi was arrested while
trying to cross one of the country’s western borders, but his family have
denied this saying he was in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal and
Bakhtiari at the time.
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