Iranian justice announced on Tuesday the six-year prison sentence for filmmaker Jafar Panahi, arrested last week.
A spokesman, Masud Setayeshí, explained that Panahi, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for the film
The Circle,
the award for best screenplay at Cannes for
Three Faces,
in 2008, and the Golden Bear of the Berlinale by
Taxi Tehran
in 2015, he will have to go to jail for a sentence from 2010, when he was sentenced for anti-government protests that occurred the previous year.
Since then, he has been banned from making films, writing scripts, traveling abroad and giving interviews to local or foreign media, his lawyer at the time explained.
Panahi was released on parole, with the possibility of her being revoked at any time, on $200,000 bail.
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Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi sentenced to six years in prison
Before his release, in 2010, the director had started a hunger strike, after 88 days of arrest, in protest at his situation, which he described as "obscene."
The filmmaker was arrested after publicly showing his support for the opposition Mirhossein Mousavi during the disputed elections that finally gave victory to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In a letter, Pahani swore "for the cinema" that he would not cease his strike until he was granted his freedom.
His case mobilized film personalities such as Steven Spielberg or Juliette Binoche.
His compatriot Abbas Kiarostami took advantage of the Cannes presentation of his film
Certified Copy
to charge against the Tehran regime and show his support for Panahi.
Setayeshí has detailed that Panahi's six years in prison "are binding" and include his sentences of "five years, for meeting and collusion against national security and one year for propaganda against the system" of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Panahi was arrested a week ago, on July 11, when he was in front of the Tehran prosecutor's office with other filmmakers to protest the arrest of two other colleagues, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al Ahmad, independent filmmakers detained days earlier.
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof.RAFA RIVAS (AFP)
On July 10, the day before his arrest, Panahi had also published a statement on his Instagram account, signed by 334 Iranian filmmakers, condemning "the constant repression" of artists and independent film professionals and demanding " the immediate and unconditional release” of Rasoulof and Al Ahmad, who are “in an unknown place”.
Rasoulof, winner of the 2020 Golden Bear for
The Lives of Others
,
He signed a statement together with Al Ahmad on May 29, entitled
Lay down your weapon
, addressed to the country's security forces.
The writing was published during the street protests that were organized against corruption after the collapse of a building called Metropol in the southern city of Abadan.
Iranian institutions have reported that 43 people died in the incident, which stirred up the demonstrations.
The Tehran regime has been charging in recent months against the film sector for denouncing the repression in the country and internationalizing its situation.