Message from Imprisoned Rapper Saman Yasin: I Am Innocent and Have Been in Limbo for 10 Months

Saman Yasin (Seydi), a imprisoned rapper, stated in an audio file that he has committed no crime and remains in limbo after ten months of detention. The 27-year-old from Kermanshah, residing in Tehran, said in this audio file: 'I am neither a political person nor a member or supporter of any political group. Like all of you, I want our living conditions and our spirits to improve.' He added: 'Abdul Qasim Salavati has not allowed me to have a chosen lawyer during these ten months of detention; he has not permitted me to select a lawyer who can work on my case... A court-appointed lawyer named Hossein Sartipi has been assigned to me, and when I contact this court-appointed lawyer, he says the judge does not allow him to work on your case.' Sources close to the government, including the Mizan news agency affiliated with the judiciary of the Islamic Republic, reported earlier that Yasin was charged in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court 'for participating in protests' and accused of 'supporting protest gatherings, singing patriotic and revolutionary songs, gathering and conspiring to act against national security and waging war.' Saman Yasin's family claims he has made confessions under torture and duress, but Saman Yasin himself denied the accusations made against him by judicial and security authorities, stating: 'All of this is to harass me, and it is all lies.' In addition to him, another rapper, Toumaj Salehi, who had taken a stance against the Islamic Republic during the protests, remains imprisoned.