Iran’s judiciary on Tuesday ordered one of the country’s leading filmmakers Jafar Panahi to serve out a six-year prison sentence from a decade ago that had never been enforced. The order came as the government seeks to silence criticism amid growing economic turmoil and political pressure.
Masoud Setayeshi, spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, announced that Panahi would fulfill his six-year prison term handed down in 2011 on charges of producing antigovernment propaganda, a final verdict that he said should have been implemented at the time.
Although Panahi was banned from traveling over the past years, the sentence was never enforced and he continued to make underground films, which were released abroad to great acclaim. He has won multiple festival awards, including the 2015 Berlin Golden Bear for “Taxi.”
Authorities detained Panahi last week when he visited the Tehran prosecutor’s office to inquire about the cases of fellow detained dissident filmmakers, Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad. Rasoulof and al-Ahmad were swept up earlier this month.
