In the tweet, the account @khamenei_ir, which provides “regular updates and news about Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei,” reminded its nearly 550,000 followers of the 1989 “verdict” against Rushdie, in which Iran’s previous leader declared the author be put to death for his controversial work, The Satanic Verses.

“Imam Khomeini’s verdict regarding Salman Rushdie is based on divine verses and just like divine verses, it is solid and irrevocable,” the account tweeted on Thursday.

The tweet drew the attention of Twitter users and journalists who saw the message from Iran’s leader as an attempt to incite violence. On Friday, Twitter agreed, with a spokesperson telling BuzzFeed News: “It’s against our rules to make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people.”