Iranian rap singers get suspended 91 lashes, jail sentences for obscene behaviour

Six Iranians who were arrested for appearing in a video singing along to the American pop song Happy by rapper Pharrell Williams have been given suspended sentences of 91 lashes and six months in prison for obscene behaviour.

Their lawyer Farshid Rofugaran revealed that another defendant who faced 'heavier charges' in relation to the video was handed a suspended sentence of one year in jail and 91 lashes by the authorities on Wednesday.

Rofugaran also stated that the verdicts had not been officially communicated to him and so he could not be completely sure about the information he had gathered, News24 reported.

The sentences are suspended for three years, meaning that if any of the seven is found guilty of a similar offence, the punishment is then carried out, he said without elaborating.

The police had detained the defendants, four men and three women, in May after six of them were shown lip-synching to Williams' hit song Happy. The women appearing in the clip were bare headed in violation of the Islamic dress code enforced after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The arrests in May drew condemnation from the singer and his fans through social media, as well as indirect criticism from moderate President Hassan Rouhani, the report added.