Iranian filmmaker and opponent Jafar Panahi, arrested last week in Tehran, must serve a six-year sentence according to a verdict issued in 2010, the Judicial Authority announced on Tuesday July 19.
62-year-old Jafar Panahi was taken to Evin Detention Center to serve his sentence “, indicated the spokesman of Justice, Massoud Sétayechi, during a press conference in Tehran.
Jafar Panahi in prison: we learned this Tuesday, July 19 that the filmmaker, arrested last week was transferred to Evin prison to serve a six-year sentence. The 62-year-old filmmaker was sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison and a twenty-year ban on directing or writing films, traveling or speaking in the media.
He is accused of having supported the 2009 protest movement against the re-election of the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President of the Islamic Republic. The verdict was pronounced in 2010. But the sentence was not carried out until twelve years later in a context of regaining control of power.
Taxi Tehran
Since 2010Jafar Panahi is represented by an empty chair at the biggest film festivals: Cannes, Venice and Berlin have made the Iranian director the symbol of resistance to authoritarian power.
Even under house arrest, the filmmaker continued to document the reality of Iranian society.
In 2015, Taxi Tehran wins the Golden Bear at the Berlin festival.
The dissident filmmaker had circumvented the ban on making films and leaving Iran by filming, with a small camera, driving a taxi in the Iranian capital.
Three years later, the jury of the Cannes festival awards him the screenplay prize for three faces. Jafar Panahi therefore continued to work and criticize the regime.
At the end of May, he signed with other filmmakers an open letter calling on the security forces “to lay down arms in the face of popular anger.
Since the spring, in fact, demonstrations have been taking place in different cities, denouncing the corruption of political leaders.