CNN —
Iranian dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi was rearrested in northern Iran on Thursday, less than two weeks after his release from prison, according to his official social media channel.
The rapper had previously been detained for more than a year and held in solitary confinement for most of that time, on charges related to supporting the widespread protest movement in Iran last year.
Local sources and witnesses said that Salehi and his acquaintances were violently arrested while walking down a street in the city of Babol on Thursday. A group of armed men suddenly approached Salehi and his friends and, without identifying themselves, started attacking the group, witnesses said.
The plain-clothed men repeatedly struck the rapper with the ends of their rifles before blindfolding him and taking him into custody, they added.
Salehi, 32, had expressed support online and in his songs for protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died after being detained by the “morality police” and taken to a “re-education center,” allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.
When nationwide protests started in mid-September last year, Salehi called for Iranians to protest against the government.
Salehi, who is of Bakhtiari ethnic background, has long rapped about Iran’s multi-ethnic makeup, encouraging unity among Iranians of different backgrounds.
After his arrest in October 2022 at the height of the protests, he was sentenced to six years and...
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