Award-winning Iranian Filmmaker Ordered To Serve 6-Year Sentence

Iran on Tuesday ordered award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi to serve out a decade-old prison sentence that had previously gone unenforced. Masoud Setayeshi, a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, announced that the six-year term for producing anti-government propaganda would now need to be fulfilled.

Panahi has been arrested numerous times, most notably in 2010, following his support for anti-government protests. He was charged with propaganda against the Iranian government, sentenced in 2011 to six years in jail, and given a 20-year ban on directing movies, writing screenplays, giving interviews, or leaving the country except for medical treatment or making the hajj pilgrimage.

Panahi, a 62-year-old director, screenwriter, and film editor, is identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement and is known for his outspoken humanistic and dissident views. His films, about poverty, sexism, violence, and censorship in the Islamic Republic, have received international acclaim and won numerous awards, but have angered Iranian government officials and have often been banned in his home country.