Jafar Panahi sentenced to five years in Iran
The Cannes winner was ordered to surrender his assets and face a travel ban after returning to Tehran to promote his latest film.
By Jisoo Serrano ·
An Iranian court has sentenced award-winning director Jafar Panahi to five years and one month in prison. The ruling also mandates the seizure of all his personal assets. Panahi, 66, received the verdict in absentia, according to his lawyer Mostafa Nili. The court additionally imposed a two-year travel ban and prohibited him from using social media platforms for the same duration.
The specific charges against the filmmaker remain unclear. He returned to Iran in March from an overseas trip to promote his film It Was Just an Accident. That picture won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Despite a prior one-year prison sentence for propaganda activities issued in absentia last year, Panahi came back to Tehran.
Nili stated that Panahi faces three open legal cases. The director was not notified of the hearing date for the most recent case. He only learned of the proceedings after his bank accounts were frozen last week. A European-based activist and friend of the filmmaker told the Associated Press that Panahi had not been detained as of Monday evening. The friend spoke with the director by phone after the sentencing was announced.
Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer at the legal counseling center Dadban, questioned the constitutionality of the asset seizure. Khazaeli noted that the confiscation could violate Iran’s constitution unless authorities establish a clear legal link between the property and an alleged offense. This legal challenge adds a layer of complexity to the ruling.
The sentence has drawn reactions from peers in the Iranian film industry. Setareh Maleki, an actor living in exile, told The Guardian that the ruling demonstrates the state's fear of independent storytelling. She stated that when stories cross borders, they become harder to silence. Panahi’s work has long focused on state violence and personal resilience.
A filmmaker currently shooting a film in secret inside Iran expressed support for Panahi. She believes the new sentence is linked to his calls for unity during the January protests. She also cited his support for diverse voices, including those aligned with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah. The filmmaker spoke on condition of anonymity.
The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran recently reported that authorities are intensifying their crackdown on cultural figures. The organization described a trend of pulling peaceful voices into the same coercive security and judicial apparatus used to suppress dissent across the country.
Source: The Guardian
