An Iranian court has reportedly sentenced tattooed pop star Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo, to death for blasphemy. The 37-year-old singer has been in custody in Iran since December 2023 after being extradited from Türkiye.
Multiple Iranian media sources, including Iranian newspapers Etemad And Jam Jamreported on Sunday that Tataloo was sentenced to death by Iran’s Supreme Court after being found guilty of insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Etemad said Tataloo was serving a five-year prison sentence for various offenses, including blasphemy, but his case was reopened at the prosecutor’s request. He was sentenced to death in a retrial.
The report notes that the verdict is not final and that Tataloo can still appeal. Iranian judicial authorities also said on Sunday that a final verdict in the case had not yet been reached.
The musician, known for mixing rap, pop and R&B styles, had already been sentenced to 10 years in prison for promoting “prostitution” and accused of anti-regime propaganda and publishing “obscene content”.
Tataloo was not always at odds with the Iranian regime. In 2015, he released a song supporting Iran’s nuclear program, which collapsed after the Trump administration withdrew from the deal. In 2017, Tataloo held a televised meeting with ultra-conservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who later died in a helicopter crash. Before his extradition, Tataloo had lived in Istanbul since 2018.
This case comes against a backdrop of increasing persecution in Iran, including judicial executions. The UN has reported some 901 executions in 2024, the highest number in nine years. The uncertainty surrounding the Tataloo verdict coincided with a shooting Saturday at Iran’s Supreme Court in Tehran that resulted in the deaths of two judges specializing in national security cases.
