Rapper Amir Tataloo apparently sentenced to death

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Lerato Khumalo

“Insult to the Prophet”

Iranian rapper apparently sentenced to death

01/19/2025 – 10:03 p.mReading time: 2 minutes

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Amir Tataloo: The Iranian rapper should face the death penalty. (archive photo) (Source: Hamed Badiee/imago-images-bilder)

Amir Tataloo was once courted by the Iranian leadership. Now the musician is said to be sentenced to death.

An Iranian court has sentenced singer Amir Tataloo, who was convicted of blasphemy, to death in an appeal. The reform-oriented newspaper “Etemad” reported in its online edition on Sunday that the Supreme Court had accepted the prosecution’s objection to a five-year prison sentence, which had been imposed for, among other things, blasphemy.

The trial was resumed, “and this time the accused was sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet,” the newspaper reported, referring to the Prophet Mohammed. The verdict is not yet final and an appeal can be lodged.

The 37-year-old singer and composer, whose real name is Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, is one of the pioneers of Iranian rap. He is known for combining rap with pop and R&B. After he was unable to obtain a license to work in the music sector from the Iranian authorities, he moved his residence to the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul in 2018. In December 2023, the Turkish judiciary handed him over to Iran. Tataloo has been in custody ever since.

Among other things, he was accused of “encouraging the young generation to engage in prostitution”, spreading “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic and publishing “obscene content”.

In 2017 he even met the ultra-conservative future head of state Ebrahim Raisi, who was then a candidate for the presidential election and died in a helicopter crash in May 2024. When the international nuclear agreement was reached in 2015, Tataloo released a song in support of Iran’s nuclear program.