Amir Maghsoodloo, better known as Amir Tataloo is an Iranian R&B musician. On November 5, 2016, he was convicted of “spreading western immorality” and sentenced to 5 years and 74 lashes.

Tataloo has been repeatedly denied a permit to officially release his music by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. This has forced the popular musician, who has over 3 million followers on Instagram, to release his music through underground channels. In 2013 the artist was arrested on charges of collaborating with foreign networks.

The musician has stirred controversy with political songs. In July 2015, while Iran’s government was finishing nuclear negotiations with the United States, Tataloo released a song in collaboration with the military. That song, titled “Nuclear Energy,” urged Iran’s government not to reduce its military in negotiations with its refrain, “This is our absolute right, to have an armed Persian Gulf”.

Iran’s military and bureaucracy fall on opposite sides concerning negotiations with the west. Iranian diplomats agreed to reduce the country’s military capabilities in exchange for a lifting of sanctions, greatly upsetting the military in a victory for the bureaucracy.

Amir Tataloo is currently imprisoned in Evin Prison, Tehran’s high-security facility for political prisoners and other prisoners of conscience.