Arrested Iranian Rapper Salehi Transferred To Isfahan Prison

After days of uncertainty surrounding the whereabouts of detained dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, his lawyer said his client had been transferred to Dastgerd prison in Isfahan.

Lawyer Amir Raisian wrote on the social media platform X that Salehi informed his family on December 4 of his transfer to the prison the previous evening.

Salehi was rearrested on November 30, less than two weeks after his release on bail. The artist had spent nearly 13 months in custody, including 252 days in solitary confinement.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency said that he is accused of “publishing false information and disturbing the public mind.” 

Raisian called the rearrest unlawful and the charge against Salehi totally unfounded.

Salehi, 33, was initially arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of nationwide protests that had erupted the previous month.

A court sentenced him to six years and three months in prison in July on a charge of “corruption on Earth.”

The rapper was freed on bail on November 18 after the Supreme Court returned his case to a lower court.

In a video published on his YouTube channel on November 27, Salehi said that he neither admitted guilt nor cooperated with the security forces, despite the torture and other ill-treatment he endured while in custody.