Jailed Iranian dissident rapper Saman Yasin, who was detained during the nationwide protests in Iran last year, has reportedly been transferred to a psychiatric center.
The Human Rights Network of Kurdistan and the HRANA news agency said on July 23 that Yasin was transferred on the orders of Abolghasem Salavati, the judge presiding over his case. The move was made without Yasin’s family or close associates being informed.
A rapper from Kermanshah Province — a northwestern region with a significant Kurdish population and the focus of a government crackdown against dissent — recently released an audio message from prison in which he maintained his innocence and expressed frustration at his detention. He also claimed that the judge had denied him access to his chosen lawyer.
Yasin was arrested by security forces during nationwide protests in 2022. Initial reports suggested that he was first taken to a local police station before being transferred to Evin prison, and subsequently to the Greater Tehran prison.
The judiciary’s news agency reported that Yasin was accused of “waging war against God,” a charge that led to a death sentence from the Tehran Revolutionary Court. However, the Supreme Court has since accepted Yasin’s appeal for a retrial and referred his case back to the Revolutionary Court.
A source with direct knowledge of the situation told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that before the first court session, the appointed lawyer asked Yasin to “take the blame for a shooting to have his life spared.”
Yasin was later moved to Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj, along with two other detainees, Mohsen Shekari and Mohammad Boroghani. Shekari was executed in December shortly after his transfer.
The Human Rights Network of Kurdistan has reported that Yasin was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture following his arrest, including solitary confinement, detention in a cold room, severe beatings, and being thrown down the stairs of his ward. He was also allegedly pressured into making forced confessions.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini in custody after she was detained for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly, Iranians have flooded the streets across the country to protest a lack of rights, with women and schoolgirls making unprecedented shows of support in the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.
The judiciary, at the urging of lawmakers, has instituted harsh penalties, including the death sentence, for offenders.
Meanwhile, judges also have recently begun sending offenders to psychiatric centers as part of their punishment, a move prominent psychiatry boards in Iran have said is an abuse of judicial authority.
At the same time, the rate of executions in Iran has been rising sharply, particularly in the wake of widespread protests.
Amnesty International says the regime in Tehran executes more people than any other country in the world other than China, while the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a Washington-based organization specializing in Iranian human rights research, said in a recent report that 135 executions were carried out in Iran in May alone.
Source » rferl