Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been ordered to serve 6 years in prison after getting arrested last week. According to Iran’s judiciary, the sentence was given to Panahi in 2010, when he participated in anti-government protests. He received conditional bail after a few months.
Panahi was arrested and taken to Evin Prison on the 11th and is ordered to complete his earlier sentence of 6 years. He was taken into custody when he went to seek information about the well-being of 2 fellow filmmakers: Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad. Rasoulof and al-Ahmad were arrested days earlier for using social media to criticize the government’s response to the collapse of the Metropol building and the protests that followed. The collapse killed dozens and the building did not have apt safety measures in place. Several arrests of those officials responsible for the tragedy took place.
Panahi is a world-renowned filmmaker and won multiple international accolades for his work, including a Best Screenplay award at Cannes Film Festival in 2018 for 3 Faces. Several film festivals issued statements condemning his arrest. French foreign ministry called Iran’s arrests of filmmakers ‘a worrying deterioration in the situation of artists in Iran’.
Featured Image: Aslan Media
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