Iranian pop star Tataloo sentenced to death for blasphemy

An Iranian court has reportedly sentenced tattooed pop star Amir Hossein Salehi, better known as Tataloo, to death for blasphemy.

The 37-year-old musician has been in detention in Iran since December 2023 after being extradited from Turkey. Before his extradition, Tataloo had been living in Istanbul since 2018.

According to various Iranian media outlets, Tataloo was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court after being found guilty of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Etemad local media outlet, reported that Tataloo was already serving a five-year prison term for multiple offenses, including blasphemy, but the prosecutor's request to reopen his case led to a retrial and the imposition of the death sentence.

The musician, known for blending rap, pop, and R&B styles, previously faced a 10-year sentence for promoting “prostitution” and was charged with anti-regime propaganda and publishing “obscene content.”

His arrest in October 2022 was for his role in the Mahsa Amini protests movement, where Amini (22) died in the custody of the country's morality police after being detained for wearing her hijab too loosely.

"Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind." Salehi rapped about Amini in one video which would land him in trouble. Salehi would later report about having experienced torture and being placed in solitary confinement.

After a brief release in 2023, he was re-arrested on charges of “making false claims and spreading lies,”, after making and sharing videos revealing the painful experience. He was taken to Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan and later he was sentenced to death.

While currently, the artiste is at loggerheads with the Ayatollah regime, this has not always been the case. Previously, he released a song lending his support to Iran’s nuclear program.

In 2017 Tataloo held a televised meeting with the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who later died in a helicopter crash. Iran uses capital punishment for major crimes including murder, drug trafficking, rape and sexual assault.

Human rights experts led by Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran; have been calling for his release since then.

“We have received allegations that it is increasingly common for artists, activists and journalists to be arrested and detained on charges such as ‘publishing false news’ or ‘propaganda against the state’,” the experts said.

“We are very worried at the reported criminalisation of the legitimate exercise of artistic expression through the imposition of a range of dubious charges,” they said. “Executions following unfair trials constitute an arbitrary deprivation of life.”