Iranian rap artist Saman Seydi, better known as Saman Yasin, has been "severely tortured" in prison, Iran International has learned.

Seydi was arrested in October 2022 during the anti-regime protests in Iran, and was handed a death sentence. However, his appeal against the sentence was accepted in December, and now he is expecting a retrial.

"During the interrogations, Saman was severely tortured to confess he was carrying weapons (when arrested). They threatened to arrest members of his family should he refuse to make the confession they demand," a source close to Seydi's family told Iran International.

The source said Saman had been "suspended in the air" in prison for three days so that he would be forced into confession.

Saman Yasin's retrial was supposed to be held on May 8, 2023. However, he has been left in limbo in Rajaeishahr Prison, west of Tehran, awaiting his court session without access to a lawyer.

The 25-year-old dissident rapper from the Kurdish-majority Kermanshah province in Western Iran, reportedly attempted suicide in prison by taking a large number of pills back in December.

While the Islamic Republic's Judiciary accepted the appeal against Saman Yasin's death sentence, he still faces the charge of acting against the country's national security and "waging war against God", which is punishable by capital punishment.