Iran Court Sentences Pop Singer Tataloo To Death For 'Blasphemy'

Iranian singer Tataloo has been sentenced to death on appeal for blasphemy, overturning a previous five-year prison term.

Pop singer Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo has been sentenced to death by a court in Iran.

Source : ABPLIVE AI

A court in Iran has sentenced the popular singer Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo, to death on appeal after he was convicted of blasphemy. 

According to a report by the newspaper Etemad, the Supreme Court accepted the prosecutor's objection to a previous five-year jail term on offences including blasphemy. 

"The case was reopened and this time the defendant was sentenced to death for insulting the prophet,” the report stated referring to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. 

The newspaper further reported that the verdict was not final and could still be appealed against. 

The 37-year-old underground musician has been living in Turkey's Istanbul since 2018 before Turkish police handed him over to Iran in December 2023. He has been in detention in Iran since then, as per an AFP report. 

The pop singer was previously sentenced to 10 years for promoting “prostitution” and in other cases was charged with disseminating “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic and publishing “obscene content”.

Tataloo, the heavily tattooed singer, known for combining rap, pop, and R&B, has been courted by conservative politicians as a way of reaching out to young, liberal-minded Iranians.

The musician had held an "awkward" televised meeting in 2017 with the ultra-conservative Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who later died in a helicopter crash. 

In 2015, he published a song in support of Iran's nuclear programme that later unravelled in 2018 during the first presidential term of Donald Trump. 

Last month, a female singer was arrested by Iranian authorities after she performed a virtual concert on YouTube without wearing a hijab, her lawyer said. 

Parastoo Ahmady, 27 was arrested from the northern province of Mazandaran. She was arrested after a case was filed against her concert performance which she performed wearing a long black sleeveless and collarless dress, and no hijab. 

Two of the four male musicians accompanying her during the performance were also arrested in Tehran.