French-Iranian Ex-Hostage Expresses Gratitude For Iranian Uprising

The 33-year-old metalworker from Esfahan, known by his stage name Toomaj, is currently serving a six-year and three-month sentence in Dastgerd Prison in Esfahan Province on charges of "corruption on earth" and "waging war against God." The award will be accepted on his behalf by his London-based cousin, Azadeh Babadi, who operates an account representing Toomaj.

The award is great support for all the people for whom Toomaj has fought, Babadi said in a video message posted on X by Index on Censorship. “Toomaj is still detained so it is our turn now to take the responsibility and do everything in our power to be his voice and push the regime to set him free,” she added.

Index on Censorship presents annual awards to individuals worldwide who have made significant contributions to free expression in the preceding year. Past sponsors of the award include The Guardian, Google, SAGE Publications, and the London law firm Doughty Street Chambers.

Toomaj was violently arrested by the intelligence ministry in Esfahan province during the height of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests on October 30, 2022, for his artistic activities in favor of the anti-government movement. He was reportedly subjected to severe torture while in custody and forced to make televised “confessions” that incriminated him.

Toomaj used his social media influence to encourage protesters not to give up the streets and join strikes to topple the regime, although he had already been arrested once before. He also provided guidance on bypassing internet censorship. Throughout his career, he was never allowed to release his music in Iran or hold live concerts, connecting with his fans solely through online platforms like YouTube.

In one defiant tweet following his arrest, Official Toomaj quoted one of his songs: "We will come to the streets, every day and night, until Iran is freed. The streets are ours; we will take them back from you."

This was the second time Toomaj, a highly popular underground rapper, was arrested for his politically charged songs, such as “Buy a Rat Hole” (2021) in which he vehemently criticized repression, injustice, poverty, and authorities’ corruption and impunity from prosecution. The song harshly condemned the regime and called out its agents and supporters, warning them that retribution for their actions was imminent. "You are a murderer if you cover up murder. To cover up murder you must step in blood,” he sang.

Like many other Iranian musicians, Toomaj was never able to release his songs or perform them publicly due to an unofficial. Iranian musicians, regardless of their genre, must obtain permits to release their music or hold concerts. The permit issuance often depends on the content of the lyrics and the artist's overall activities rather than the genre itself. Rap and rock music are generally frowned upon as Western influences and are not considered suitable for the Iranian public. Furthermore, recording and releasing music categorized as "degenerate Western culture" and "vulgar" on the internet is deemed illegal by the authorities.

The Iranian regime has also targeted other artists and singers whose work has been critical of the regime and explicitly addressed either political or social themes, including rappers Saman Yasin, who was charged with mohrabeh, or “enmity against God,” in November last year and Mehdi Yarrahi, who was arrested on August 28 for a song named Your Veil in support of the opposition to the mandatory veiling rules.

For the past four decades, religious authorities in Iran have prohibited musical instruments from being showcased on state television, though they reluctantly allowed music broadcasts. Female singers are completely banned from publishing their work, and concerts are permitted only for all-female audiences or when female artists perform in choirs.

According to the Bangkok Post, Reza Nobakhti, speaking at a press conference held in Bangkok, discussed the hostages who hold Thai citizenship. He mentioned that he had been informed that Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, who met with Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas in Qatar last week, requested the release of the hostages as well as Filipino captives.

Among the approximately 200 hostages that Hamas has brought from Israel to Gaza, there are citizens from various countries, including 19 Thai nationals and individuals from the Philippines.

Nobakhti stated that all Thai hostages are being kept "safely in good health" in Palestinian territories, and the "well-being of Thai hostages is the main concern of Iranian authorities."

As of now, at least 30 Thais have been killed since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel.

He added that Hamas has agreed to release the hostages; however, “the challenge is that, due to Israel's continuous bombardment, they are unable to transfer the hostages from Gaza to Israel.”

On Friday Hamas announced the release of two American hostages, a mother and her daughter, following Qatar's mediation.

Bloomberg also reported that the United States and some European countries have called on Israel to postpone the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, considering the ongoing negotiations for the release of hostages via Qatar.

Israel, in response, stated that the release of two American hostages by Hamas will not affect the country's ongoing military operations.

The former head of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Relations Committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh has told the press in Iran that three groups of Iranian statesmen should be put on trial on charges of weakening the country by their injudicious actions and policies.

He identified the three groups as "Those who have sacrificed national interests for factional political gains, those who have benefitted from international sanctions and plundered the country's financial resources, and those who prevented the forming of a rational foreign policy."

These characteristics point to ultraconservatives who have opposed cordial relations with the West and the JCPOA nuclear agreement between Iran and the United States. The same faction of hardliners also opposed accession to financial regulations set by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that could have facilitated international trade and banking, as well as compromise with the European and American partners to the JCPOA that could have paved the way for ending the sanctions that have paralyzed Iran's economy.

Meanwhile, Falahatpisheh charged that the same ultraconservative groups, who previously claimed that furthering the negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal was treason against the country's national interests and prevented the passing of the FATF bills, are currently pretending to be supporting the JCPOA and the ratification of financial regulations.

He was alluding to President Ebrahim Raisi and his ultraconservative economic teas and populist supporters in the government who have asked Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to revive the debates about the FATF bills at Iran's Expediency Council, where the bills have been shelved since 2017 because of faction fighting at the parliament and government.

Falahatpisheh said that these groups, which he did not specifically identify, have squandered billions of dollars of the country's financial resources through their obstructive measures.

In another development, the conservative Jomhouri Eslami daily, a critic of the government policies wrote on Thursday that while it's a positive step that some of the country's officials have come to realize that their policies concerning the JCPOA and FATF were mistaken, these politicians should be held accountable for their decisions and compelled to bear the consequences of their detrimental actions.

The daily stated: "The people certainly welcome this change of approach on the part of the politicians who used to oppose the nuclear deal and healthy international trade and banking. But those politicians should be held accountable for the losses they imposed on the country's economy."

Similar to Falahatpisheh, Jomhouri Eslami also pointed out that some of the current advocates of the JCPOA and FATF are the same individuals who used to dismiss the nuclear agreement and FATF. "They asserted that they could address the country's economic problems without becoming party to the FATF conventions. They also contended that joining the convention would result in divulging Iran's economic secrets to foreigners and compromising the country's sovereignty."

The daily noted that during parliamentary discussions about the FATF, some individuals did not have a clear understanding of the acronym's meaning, and others even misspelled it.

Jomhouri Eslami also warned that although some hardliners now say they have changed their minds about the two topics, there is still a powerful opposition. The daily further warned that the continuation of this dispute might create bigger problems for Iran.

In yet another development, former President Hassan Rouhani told the congress of his political party, the Moderation and Development Party on Wednesday, that "Iran's way out of its current problems is moderation." Referring to the monopoly of power by hardliners, he warned that when a minority rules in the country, the people will have to voice their demands in the streets."

The video of the protest quickly circulated on social media, as yet another manifestation of the public mood in Iran opposing the government’s ideological and material support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The video captures the moment when spectators at the start of the game, reacted to the announcement for a minute of silence for Gaza with noise and the blaring of horns. The show of opposition occurred less than a week after a similar incident at a match involving Persepolis FC, where fans of that team chanted slogans against individuals displaying Palestinian flags in the stadium.

Remarkably, the video even prompted reactions from official Israeli social media accounts and authorities. Iran's leadership announced its full support for Hamas, an Iran-backed militant group responsible for a brutal attack on Israel and the massacre of around 1,400 people on October 7. Nearly 200 people, including women and children have also been taken hostage by the militants.

While the Iranian regime's propaganda apparatus organized street protests in support of Hamas in Tehran and other cities, reports from Iran suggest that the majority of participants were regime supporters and members of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and their families. Ordinary Iranians largely refrained from participating in these rallies, emphasizing the complex and multifaceted nature of public sentiment within Iran.

The espionage group’s intrusion spanned an eight-month period from February to September 2023.

The cyber attackers employed a range of tactics during the operation, including the theft of sensitive files and passwords, Symantec revealed.

The perpetrators introduced a PowerShell backdoor called PowerExchange in one instance, providing them with the ability to not only monitor but also execute commands through email messages, surreptitiously forwarded from an Exchange Server. The campaign impacted a minimum of 12 computers, with strong indications pointing toward the deployment of backdoors and keyloggers on numerous other systems.

Evidence has also emerged suggesting that the attackers went as far as modifying Windows firewall rules to enable remote access, demonstrating their resourcefulness.

The Crambus espionage group has long been associated with espionage operations in multiple countries, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Albania, the United States, and Turkey.

The group is recognized for its prolonged intrusions, primarily focused on intelligence gathering and espionage. In recent times, they have incorporated a substantial social engineering component into the initial stages of their cyber-attacks.

The activities of the group over the past two years indicate that they pose a continuous threat to the Middle East and beyond.

The United States government had previously attributed the group to the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic.