Tehran, Apr. 30, (dpa/GNA) – The Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was recently sentenced to death, has been banned from making phone calls from prison, one of his lawyers has said.

No contact with the musician is possible, his defence lawyer Amir Raisian said on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. The reason for the ban is said to be the activity on Salehi’s social media channels, which are operated by relatives.

Salehi’s death sentence, which was handed down in connection with his support for the mass anti-government protests in autumn 2022, was announced at the weekend. The news sparked outrage in Iran and other countries around the world. Salehi’s defence lawyers are planning to take legal action against the judgement.

In another high-profile case, Iran’s judiciary has cancelled a death sentence against a well-known business mogul, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported on Tuesday, citing judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir.

Babak Zanjani was sentenced to death for corruption in 2016, but the 50-year-old must now serve 20 years in prison instead. It was initially unclear whether the years of imprisonment he had already served would be taken into account.

The Zanjani case is one of the biggest corruption scandals in Iran’s recent history. During the presidency of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he and his accomplices embezzled the equivalent of around €2.5 billion (about $2.7 billion) through illegal oil trading.

Zanjani has paid back both the damages incurred and a quarter of the original sum to the state in recent years. According to a spokesperson for the judiciary cited by Iranian media, this led to the revision of the death sentence.  

GNA