Iranian rapper exiled in Germany tells of the horrific torture he suffered in his country

Saman Yasin, also known as Saman Seyedi, is a Kurdish-Iranian rapper who was arrested on October 2, 2022 in Tehran during protests of Women, Life, Liberty following the murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in the custody of the Morality Police for not wearing the veil properly.

Yasin was charged with moharebeh (enemy with God) for allegedly firing a gun into the air at a protest and "conspiring against national security," charges he denied, Mehr News Agency detailed in a same-day report from the official Iranian perspective.

He was initially sentenced to death, but after appeals and international pressure, the Supreme Court changed the sentence to five years in prison in the village of Kerman, Amnesty International reported in a 2023 report, updated in 2024.

The horrific torture suffered by Yasin

In prisons such as Evin and Rajai Shahr, Yasin suffered brutal torture: mock executions, beatings and being hung upside down, he alleged in a leaked audio from prison, cited by Amnesty International.

In statements to CNN, Yasin declared that he suffered "the most severe torture" during his first three months of detention.

The musician added that on one occasion his interrogator told him he would extract a confession from him with a pen.

"They inserted a pen into my left nostril and then hit me hard from below. I passed out from the pain and, when I woke up, I was covered in blood," he recounted.

Yasin uses a nasal dilator to help him cope with the breathing difficulties he suffers as a result of these tortures.

In addition, the rapper commented that there is an underground cold room inside Evin prison, which interrogators told him is not even on the map.

"I heard the other prisoners call it the morgue because the temperature is so low," he said. "It's freezing cold," he added.

"They brought me up, one or two hours, just hanging. Then they took me down for two or three hours before hanging me again," Yasin told CNN.

"After a while, I reached a state where I felt like I was losing consciousness, like in a dream, half awake, half asleep, because I was hanging upside down. They did this to me for three days," he commented.

Flight to Germany

In October 2024, after more than two years in prison and with his health in tatters, he was given a temporary medical leave. It was then that he escaped from Iran bound for Germany, confirmed IranWire on December 2, 2024.

As he told CNN, he fled through the mountains to northern Iraq with the help of a smuggler who then abandoned him. Yasin noted that it was a "dangerous" escape.

Speaking to the US media in Berlin, Germany, the rapper said that returning to prison was untenable after torture that left him "broken."

Yasin arrived in Germany on January 17, 2025, hosted by PEN Berlin, the writers' association reported.

The rapper, who is on a special humanitarian visa in the German capital, dreams of making it big in the United States.

During his interview with CNN, the artist concluded that "after prison, I feel a huge responsibility towards people. I have much higher expectations of myself: to be their voice...that means everything to me."