Security forces arrest dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi

Iran-HRM – Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi was arrested by security forces at his home and taken to an unknown location.

Salehi’s relatives announced the news on Instagram.  

Salehi’s home was searched, and his personal belongings were confiscated upon his arrest.

According to the message, which was posted on Sunday, 12 agents raided Toomaj Salehi’s home and after inspecting there, transferred him to an unknown location.

Toomaj Salehi had protested the policies of the regime in his two recent works, “Normal Life” and “Mouse Hole”, which were widely embraced by Iranian social media users.

Toomaj Salehi’s rap music addressed issues such as workers’ strikes, government corruption, executions and imprisonment, the unpatriotic 25-year agreement with China, and the artists’ disregard for social problems.

Iranian social media users protested the arrest of Toomaj Salehi and demanded his release under the hashtag #FreeToomaj.

Prior his arrest, Salehi announced on his Twitter account that he might be arrested and wrote: “Well, comrades, I keep my phone away because they probably have my location through this. Don’t worry, I won’t let them arrest me because we have a lot to do with them! I will take a secure phone in a few days.”

In another tweet he said, “You should know that I am not afraid of death, imprisonment, and torture. What I fear is to see women sell their bodies out of want and shut my mouth. I am afraid of watching people bend into the trash bin up to their waist [to find food] but remain silent; to see you beat a worker and stay quiet; to witness your killing of a protester and torturing of his justice-seeking family, and shut up… There’s a sea of blood between you and me.”