Iran has denied issuing the death penalty for famed Iranian rapper Amirhossein Maghsoudloo – better known as ‘Amir Tataloo’ – following reports in local media.
Amir Tataloo, a hugely popular artist among Iranian youth and known for tattoos that cover his entire face, was handed multiple “short and long” jail terms by a Tehran court last May, according to his lawyer. This included a three-year sentence for blasphemy and 10 years for ‘promoting prostitution’.
He was also charged with spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic and dissemating obsence material.
Blasphemy carries the potential for the death penalty in Iran, although this charge was later overturned and referred to another court.
Reformist newspaper Etemad had reported that Iran’s Supreme Court “accepted the prosecutor’s objection” to a previous five-year jail term on offences such as blasphemy and claimed “the case was reopened, and this time the defendant was sentenced to death for insulting the prophet”, referring to Islam’s Prophet Muhammed.
On Sunday, Iranian authorities denied reports circulating in Iranian media that ‘Amir Tataloo’ had been sentenced to death.
“He has recently become eligible for leniency under legal provisions. Leniency provisions, or legal reprieves, are measures outlined in criminal law to assist convicts in line with the restorative justice approach,” the Iranian judiciary said in a statement according to Iran International.
Amir Tataloo was living in exile in Istanbul from 2018 until December 2023 when he was deported by Turkish authorities back to Iran, where he was detained despite his previous support for the government and penning a song promoting Iran’s nuclear programme in 2015.
In that year, he had met ultra-conservative politician Ebrahim Raisi in 2017, who was later to become Iran’s president, in an apparent bid to reach out to young Iranians.
