عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Iranian Rapper to Be Jailed for Six Years, Avoiding Death Sentence 

An Iranian man enters a mosque to pray on Eid al-Adha at the shrine of Abdol-Azim in Tehran, Iran June 29, 2023. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian man enters a mosque to pray on Eid al-Adha at the shrine of Abdol-Azim in Tehran, Iran June 29, 2023. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
TT
20
TT

Iranian Rapper to Be Jailed for Six Years, Avoiding Death Sentence 

An Iranian man enters a mosque to pray on Eid al-Adha at the shrine of Abdol-Azim in Tehran, Iran June 29, 2023. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian man enters a mosque to pray on Eid al-Adha at the shrine of Abdol-Azim in Tehran, Iran June 29, 2023. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Well-known Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who supported the protest movement that sprang up in Iran last year, has avoided a death sentence and been jailed for six years and three months, his lawyer told Monday's edition of the daily newspaper Shargh.

Salehi had expressed support online and in his songs for a wave of nationwide protest triggered by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman arrested for wearing "inappropriate attire".

Salehi was convicted of "corruption on earth", which covers a broad range of offences including those related to religious morality, and can carry the death sentence.

His lawyer Rosa Etemad Ansari was quoted as saying Salehi had been acquitted of insulting the Supreme Leader and cooperation with hostile governments, and had been moved out of solitary confinement into the general section of his prison.

In November, Iranian media had published a video of Salehi in detention, in which he was blindfolded and he renounced previous comments critical of the authorities.

Most Viewed

 
World

Al Shabaab Captures Strategic Somalia Town as it Presses Offensive

Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME
Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME
TT
20
TT

Al Shabaab Captures Strategic Somalia Town as it Presses Offensive

Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME
Vehicles of the Somali special police forces are parked during a handover ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, 14 April 2025. EPA/SAID YUSUF WARSAME

Al Shabaab fighters captured a town in central Somalia on Wednesday that government forces had been using as a staging area to drive back an offensive by the militants that has gained ground in recent weeks, residents and soldiers said.
Advances by the al Qaeda affiliate, which included briefly capturing villages within 50 km (30 miles) of Mogadishu last month, have left residents of the capital on edge as rumors swirl that al Shabaab could target the city.
The army has recaptured those villages, but al Shabaab continues to advance in the countryside, leading the government to deploy police officers and prison guards to support the military, soldiers have told Reuters.
Six residents and three soldiers said al Shabaab seized the town of Adan Yabaal, which lies around 245 km (150 miles) north of Mogadishu, in heavy fighting on Wednesday.
"After many hours of fighting we made a tactical retreat," said Aden Ismail, a military officer who transported injured soldiers to the nearby Hiiraan region.
The army and allied clan militias have been using Adan Yabaal as an operating base for raids against al Shabaab.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who hails from the area, visited the town last month to meet with military commanders there about sending reinforcements.
"If al Shabaab captures one town, that does not mean they overpowered us," Mohamud said in a speech on Wednesday, without directly naming the town. "There is a big difference between a war and a battle."
Al Shabaab said in a statement that its forces had overrun 10 military installations during Wednesday's fighting.
"After early morning prayers, we heard a deafening explosion, then gunfire," Fatuma Nur, a mother of four, told Reuters by telephone from Adan Yabaal. "Al Shabaab attacked us from two directions."
National government officials were either not reachable or did not respond to requests for comment.
The fighting comes as the future of international security support to Somalia has grown increasingly precarious.
A new African Union peacekeeping mission replaced a larger force at the start of the year, but its funding is uncertain, with the United States opposed to a plan to transition to a UN financing model.