Kurdish Iranian Rapper Facing Execution Attempts To Commit Suicide

A Kurdish Iranian rapper who has been sentenced to death tried to take his own life in prison, activists say.

The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that Saman Yasin swallowed a large number of pills in Rajaee Shahr prison on the evening of December 20. The prison is located in the town of Gohardasht, approximately 20 kilometers west of Tehran.

Yasin was transferred to hospital and then back to the prison after undergoing a gastric lavage and receiving a serum injection, the group said, adding that the singer was not in a good condition.

Yasin was arrested on October 2 and tortured during his detention before being sentenced to death on October 29 on the charge "waging war against God."

He is a well-known rapper and was a vocal critic of Iran’s clerical regime before his arrest. He supported the anti-government protests that has swept Iran for more than three months.

"Saman Yasin was suddenly transferred from [Tehran’s] Evin prison to Rajaee Shahr prison three weeks ago along with several other prisoners sentenced to death,” the Kurdistan Human Rights Network quoted a source close to his family as saying.

Yasin “has been kept in very difficult conditions” since Iran carried out the first execution of a protester earlier this month, the source said, adding that the rapper attempted to commit suicide “in protest against these difficult conditions, the pressures exerted on him and his imminent execution."

Iran has been gripped by protests demanding more freedoms and women's rights since the September death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of morality police. She had been arrested for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code.

At least 469 people have been killed in the security forces’ crackdown on the demonstrations, including 63 under-18s, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group. At least 18,000 others have been detained.

Dozens of people involved in the demonstrations have been handed capital punishment or are facing charges that carry a death sentence.

Iran carried out the first execution on December 8, followed by a second one four days later, triggering international condemnation.