On 24 April 2024, Salehi was sentenced to death for charges linked to Iran's 2022–23 Woman, Life, Freedom movement, before it was overturned in June 2024.

[3] His parents were working-class, but the Bakhtiari people, an ethnic group, have historically been tribal leaders and influential in Persian politics.

[3] At first, studios were not interested in his work as it was too overtly political, but as protests started taking place across Iran, his songs gained traction.

[6][7][8] He has sold personal items, such as his motorcycle, to produce music, as the "rap-e farsi" genre has to take place secretly, being banned by the government.

[19] The state-backed Young Journalists Club published a video of a blindfolded man it claimed to be Toomaj who admitted, apparently under duress, to making "a mistake".

[22] His last music YouTube video posted prior to his October 2022 arrest included the lyrics, "Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind.

During this time he released a video in which he alleged that he had been severely tortured after his arrest, and placed in solitary confinement for 252 days, but had not "confessed".

[4] He said that the torture included getting an adrenaline injections so that he would not pass out, getting beaten up and having his arms, legs and fingers broken,[4] and staying in a constantly lit cell for more than 200 days.

[29][30][31][32] He said that he had sued the court of employees of state and media news[33] and Isfahan Province General Intelligence Department, but the judicial system denied that there ever was a lawsuit.

"[4] On 24 April 2024, he was sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Isfahan for "waging war against God" and "corruption on Earth," one of the most serious charges in Iran.

[4] His friend and musical collaborator, a rapper who goes by the name of Afrasiab, released a video in Iran, saying "Enforcing this sentence is the biggest mistake of the century... Toomaj is not just one person.

[4] Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran in New York, says that Salehi's case "underscores the glaring unlawfulness and injustice of the Islamic Republic's judicial system.

Not only was Toomaj imprisoned for participating in a peaceful protest, but now a lower court, acting as a wilful instrument of the state's security apparatus, has unlawfully sentenced him to death".