An Iranian court has given Iranian rapper Amir Tatalou the death penalty in the second degree after finding him guilty of “blasphemy,” Iranian media reported.

“The Supreme Court accepted the prosecutor’s appeal” of the previous five-year jail sentence and this time the defendant was sentenced to death for blasphemy against the “prophet” Muhammad, the reformist newspaper Etemad wrote on its website.

The 37-year-old singer and composer, one of the pioneers of Iranian rap, began his career in the early 2000s. In 2018, he moved to Constantinople after Iranian authorities denied him a license to practice as a musician.

In December 2023, the Iranian judiciary announced that the rapper was handed over to Iran by Turkish authorities on the basis of an order from a revolutionary court in Tehran.

His trial began in March 2024 on charges of “encouraging the younger generation to debauchery”, “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and “disseminating obscene content in the form of clips and songs”.

Prior to his departure for Turkey, Amir Tatalu was arrested several times, one of them in 2016 “for harassing public opinion.”

Known for his head-to-toe tattoos, the Iranian rapper caused polemics in 2017 when he met ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in his helicopter crash in May 2024.

In 2015 he wrote a song in support of Iran’s nuclear program after the international agreement between the international community and Tehran was signed.