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Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was already facing a one-year prison sentence, has now been sentenced to five years and one month in a separate ruling by a Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Panahis lawyer Mostafa Nili shared with Emtedad News Agency that the court has now sentenced his client in absentia to five years and one month of imprisonment though implementation of both rulings is discretionary and issued an order for the confiscation of Panahis assets, plus a two-year ban on using social media a two-year travel ban, as per Variety. Panahis lawyer said his clients bank accounts were suddenly frozen last week, prompting them to visit the prosecutors office in Tehran, where they learned that the verdict had been issued in absentia. Over the past two decades, Panahi has had frequent run-ins with the Iranian authorities, according to Variety. In 2010, the revered auteur known globally also for other prize-winning works such as The Circle, Offside, This is Not a Film, Taxi and No Bears was banned from making movies, speaking to the press and traveling, though he surreptitiously kept making them anyway. In 2022, Panahi was arrested in connection with protests by a group of filmmakers but was released about seven months later. The ban was lifted in April 2023, and Iranian authorities allowed Panahi to travel to Cannes to launch It Was Just an Accident. Panahi subsequently traveled widely to promote the drama, which centres around an outpouring of strong feelings by a group of former prisoners toward a torturous guard and stems from his incarceration. But he returned to Iran despite the fact that, at that point, he faced a one-year prison sentence in his home country and a climate of escalating tension that made his return very risky. (ANI)
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