TEHRAN, Jan 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - An Iranian court has sentenced popular 
singer Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo, to death on appeal after 
he was convicted of blasphemy, local media reported on Sunday.

"The Supreme Court accepted the prosecutor's objection" to a previous five-
year jail term on offences including blasphemy, reformist newspaper Etemad 
reported online.

It said "the case was reopened, and this time the defendant was sentenced to 
death for insulting the prophet", referring to Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

The report added that the verdict was not final and can still be appealed.

The 37-year-old underground musician had been living in Istanbul since 2018 
before Turkish police handed him over to Iran in December 2023.

He has been in detention in Iran since then.

Tataloo had also been sentenced to 10 years for promoting "prostitution" and 
in other cases was charged with disseminating "propaganda" against the 
Islamic republic and publishing "obscene content".

The heavily tattooed singer, known for combining rap, pop and R&B, was 
previously courted by conservative politicians as a way of reaching out to 
young, liberal-minded Iranians.

Tataloo even held an awkward televised meeting in 2017 with ultra-
conservative Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who later died in a helicopter 
crash.

In 2015, Tataloo published a song in support of Iran's nuclear programme that 
later unravelled in 2018 during the first US presidency of Donald Trump.