Second death decree passed on German rapper

Beleidigungsvorwurf: Zweites Todesdekret gegen iranischen Rapper | Panorama - Frankfurter Rundschau

Another Grand Ayatollah pronounces a death sentence against the Iranian rapper living in Germany Shahin Najafi. Only when he saw the amount of bounty that is offered on the net for him did he understand: "This is serious now."

He wants to provoke - and must now fear for his life: Shahin Najafi.

The Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi who lives in Germany has been issued with a second death decree, according to the news service Tabnak on Monday, by Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi. On a request of his followers, who asked how believers should respond to insults against a Shi'ite saint by Najafi, he replied: " Any insult to holy (Shiite) Muslim imams should be construed as blasphemy and apostasy" According to the Islamic laws which are the base of most legal judgments in Iran, blasphemy carries the death penalty.

According to a report by the Fars news agency last week Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani sentenced the 31-year-old rapper to death, because he is supposed to have been offensive in one of his songs about the tenth Imam of Shiite Muslims.

Makarem Shirazi and Safi Golpaygan considered as leading figures in Iran, the answers of the followers followed. The Grand Ayatollah's decrees are not death sentences in the legal sense, but their decrees are valid for their adherents as de facto.

Najafi now lives at a secret location under police protection and has filed a complaint against Safi Golpaygani. To Spiegel he said, "I carry on, I know. I cannot hide. I am a musician. I must act. "

At first he had misjudged the situation. "I could not believe it. Only when I saw on the Internet, the bounty of 100,000 dollars that have been offered for me did I really understand that this is serious now. "(Reuters)