epa10463068 A woman holds a portrait of Iranian hip hop artist Toomaj Salehi, one of the main voices of the Iranian revolution, during a demonstration on the 44th anniversary of the Iranian revolution against Shahh Reza Pahlavi, in Paris, France, 12 February 2023. The protesters rejected the Shah's dictatorshipin the then Imperial State of Iran from 16 September 1941 until he was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979, and the following mullahs' theocracy and called for a democratic and secular government in Iran. EPA-EFE/TERESA SUAREZSalehi in his songs supported months of protests in Iran in 2022 sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman arrested for allegedly wearing an "improper" hijab.
Salehi was initially arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of the nationwide protests.
He was sentenced in 2023 to six years and three months in prison, but avoided a death sentence due to a Supreme Court ruling.
"Branch One of the Revolutionary Court of (the central city of) Isfahan in an unprecedented move, did not enforce the Supreme Court's ruling .... and sentenced Salehi to the harshest punishment," his lawyer Amir Raisian told Sharq.
Iranian judiciary has not confirmed the sentence yet. Salehi has 20 days to appeal the ruling.
"We will definitely appeal this verdict," his lawyer said.
The U.S. Office of the Special Envoy for Iran deplored the sentence, calling it in a statement posted on X an example "of the regime’s brutal abuse of its own citizens, disregard for human rights, and fear of the democratic change the Iranian people seek."
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; writing by Elwely Elwelly, Parisa Hafezi and Paul Grant; Editing by Alison Williams, Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)
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