U.S. Condemns Iran's Use Of Death Sentence As Tool To Suppress Dissent

The United States on Wednesday condemned Tehran's crackdown on dissent after reports that an Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced well-known Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi to death for charges linked to Iran's 2022 unrest, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We once again condemn the Iranian regime’s use of the death sentence as a tool to suppress people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms. We continue to closely follow reports of Mr. Salehi’s situation," State Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily briefing when responding to TURAN's questions.

Salehi, 33, was initially arrested in October 2022 after making public statements defending the nationwide protests and his songs supported months of protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman arrested for allegedly wearing an "improper" hijab.

In late 2023, just two weeks after being released on bail, Salehi was arrested again and was sentenced to six years and three months in prison but had avoided a death sentence due to a Supreme Court ruling.

His attorney Amir Raisian was quoted by saying on Wednesday dahat the Isfahan Revolutionary Court issued the death sentence for a new charge of "corruption on Earth", while refusing to acknowledge a prior Supreme Court ruling that might have mitigated the case.

"We have seen those disturbing reports," Patel told TURAN. "We’re talking about someone who has already faced torture and other harsh treatments in detention. This is just another example of the Iranian regime’s horrific and pervasive human rights abuses.  "

The U.S. 'continues to closely follow' reports of Salehi’s situation, Patel added.

The move came as the U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law the national security legislation passed by Congress that includes several Iran-related sanctions bills, such as the MAHSA Act penalizing Tehran's human rights violations.

Asked by TURAN how the administration was going to implement the new law and if they were willing to directly target Iranian supreme leader for his gross human rights violations, Patel said in general the last will be implemented. "But I’m not going to get ahead of the process here, and we’ll wait on speaking to any of the Iran-related provisions specifically for now," he added.

"We continue to have a number of tools at our disposal to hold the Iranian regime accountable," Patel concluded.