Pop Singer Tataloo Sentenced to Death

Iranian singer Amir Hossein Maghsoudloo, also known as Tataloo, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy. The 37-year-old singer had been serving a five-year prison sentence in Iran for various offenses, including blasphemy, when a prosecutor requested that his case be reopened. Iran’s Supreme Court issued the new verdict on retrial after the singer was found guilty of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

“The supreme court accepted the prosecutor’s objection” to five-year jail term for blasphemy, a report from local newspaper Etemad said, per The Guardian. The report added that the case was reopened, and this time the defendant was sentenced to death for insulting the prophet.”

The death sentence handed to the musician comes as executions in Iran have been on the rise. According to the Independent, over 900 people were executed in Iran in 2024, a number that marked a 6% increase from the previous year and the most in nine years. However, Etemad reported that the ruling in Tataloo’s case is not yet final, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, Iranian judiciary officials confirmed Sunday that a final verdict on the case had not yet been issued. Tataloo can still appeal the verdict. It’s unclear if any appeal efforts have yet been made.

The musician had been living in Istanbul since 2018 after several arrests by the Iranian authorities and after failing to get a music activity license from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, per NME. Turkish police handed him over to Iran, where he has been in detention since, in December 2023.

In addition to his blasphemy conviction, Tataloo had also been sentenced to 10 years for promoting “prostitution.” He’d also been charged with disseminating “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic and publishing “obscene content.”

The tattoo-covered pop star rose to fame as an underground musician and is known for blending rap, pop, and R&B. He released his debut album, Zire Hamkaf, in 2011, and has gone on to release more than a dozen additional albums, the most recent being 2024’s Yin Yang. His 2021 album Fereshteh marked him as the first Iranian musician to collaborate with Universal Music Group.

Despite currently being at odds with the Iranian regime, Tataloo once engaged with conservative Iranian politicians. In 2015, he released a song in support of Iran’s nuclear program. Two years later, he held a televised meeting with the ultra-conservative Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, later died in a helicopter crash.