Award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi, arrested last week in Tehran, must serve a six-year sentence handed down to him in 2010, a judicial body announced on Tuesday.
Panahi, 62, has won numerous awards at international festivals for films that have criticized modern Iran, including the top prize in Berlin for "Taxi" in 2015 and best screenplay at Cannes for his film "Three Faces" in 2018.
A six-year sentence
He is the third director to be detained in Iran this month, along with Mostafa Aleahmad and Mohammad Rasoulof, who won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2020 for his film "There Is No Evil."
"Panahi was sentenced to a total of six years in prison in 2010... and was therefore placed in the Evin prison to serve his sentence," justice spokesman Massoud Setayeshi told reporters.
He was arrested in 2010 after his support for anti-government demonstrations.
He was convicted of "propaganda against the system", sentenced to six years in prison, banned from directing and writing films, and barred from leaving the country.
But in 2010 he served only two months in prison and subsequently lived on parole, which could be revoked at any time.
Panahi was arrested again on July 11 after going to the prosecutor's office to follow up on Rasoulof's situation.
The arrests came after Panahi and Rasoulof condemned the arrest of several colleagues in their homeland in an open letter in May.
Despite political pressures, Iran has a thriving film industry and its products regularly win awards at major international festivals.
Panahi's detention drew condemnation from fellow filmmakers.
Cannes, Venice film festivals call for release of Iranian filmmakers
Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival said they "strongly condemn" the arrests as well as "the wave of repression evident in Iran against its artists".
The Venice Film Festival called for the "immediate release" of the directors, while the Berlin Film Festival said it was "appalled and outraged" by the arrests.
On Tuesday, France again called for the "immediate" release of Panahí and condemned his "arbitrary arrest", a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Last week, the ministry said there was a "worrying deterioration in the situation of artists in Iran".
blogpay
Total Comments: 0