Imprisoned since July 2022, Iranian director Jafar Panahi was released from prison on bail when he had just started a hunger strike to denounce his conditions of detention.
Arrested on July 11 in Iran, on the sidelines of a demonstration to demand the release of his colleagues and compatriots Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, director Jafar Panahi was released on bail this Friday, February 3. And this when he had just started a hunger strike to denounce the conditions of his imprisonment.
“While I welcome Mr. Panahi’s release, it should have come three months ago when our objection to his previous conviction was upheld.”says his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht in a press release, while the son of the director posted a photo of the latter, free, in a stories on instagram.
Accused of propaganda against the regime then in place, and in particular his support for the protest movement against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President of the Islamic Republic in 2009, Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison and twenty years in ban on directing or writing films, leaving the country or speaking in the media.
But he had not been imprisoned and continued to film clandestinely, with digital cameras and an iPhone, and his films were presented at the biggest festivals. In particular Cannes and Venice, where his latest opus, No Bear, received a Special Jury Prize last September, while he was in prison and supposed to serve this sentence.
In October, his lawyer had pointed out the exceeding of the Iranian limitation period which is ten years, to denounce the fact that the sentence in question could no longer be served. And this release comes three weeks after that of Mohammad Rasoulof, released on a provisional basis for health reasons.