ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish rapper in Iran who was handed a death sentence for supporting nationwide protests in 2022 has arrived in Germany after being freed from jail, a non-governmental organization announced on Friday.
Saman Yasin is a Kurdish rapper from Iran’s western Kermanshah province who recorded songs protesting Iran’s socioeconomic conditions. He was arrested in October 2022 and transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison during the Jin Jiyan Azadi (Women Life Freedom) protests.
He was convicted on charges of moharebeh, or enmity against God, which carries the death penalty in Iran, as well as “assembly and collusion with the intention of acting against the security of the country.”
His death sentence was overturned in October 2023.
Duzen Tekkal, a German-Yazidi journalist and founder of Hawar Help NGO, said on X that Yasin had managed to leave Iran and make his way to Germany.
“While in captivity, Saman was subjected to torture and even mock executions by prison guards… During at least one previous hospital stay, he was injected with an unknown liquid that caused him to lose consciousness for 24 hours,” Tekkal said.
Yasin was admitted to a psychiatric clinic at least twice while in captivity, according to Tekkal.
Amnesty International says that Iran has used the death penalty disproportionately to suppress minority groups like Kurds and Baluchis who were active in the 2022 protests that erupted after the death of young Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police for wearing a lax hijab.
Saman Yasin is a Kurdish rapper from Iran’s western Kermanshah province who recorded songs protesting Iran’s socioeconomic conditions. He was arrested in October 2022 and transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison during the Jin Jiyan Azadi (Women Life Freedom) protests.
He was convicted on charges of moharebeh, or enmity against God, which carries the death penalty in Iran, as well as “assembly and collusion with the intention of acting against the security of the country.”
His death sentence was overturned in October 2023.
Duzen Tekkal, a German-Yazidi journalist and founder of Hawar Help NGO, said on X that Yasin had managed to leave Iran and make his way to Germany.
“While in captivity, Saman was subjected to torture and even mock executions by prison guards… During at least one previous hospital stay, he was injected with an unknown liquid that caused him to lose consciousness for 24 hours,” Tekkal said.
Yasin was admitted to a psychiatric clinic at least twice while in captivity, according to Tekkal.
Amnesty International says that Iran has used the death penalty disproportionately to suppress minority groups like Kurds and Baluchis who were active in the 2022 protests that erupted after the death of young Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police for wearing a lax hijab.
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