Iranian director Jafar Panahi, one of his country’s most awarded filmmakers, has started a hunger strike in Evin prison in Iran, where he has been held since last year. Tahereh Saeidi, his wife, announced the news on her Instagram page.
“This arrest seems more like banditry and hostage-taking than the execution of a sentence,” reads the press release translated by the hollywood reporter.
The warden announces that he is refusing all food, drink, and medicine until he is released from prison. “I will remain in this state until my lifeless body is released from prison,” he adds.
Jafar Panahi was arrested with the director Mohammed Rasoulof and his colleague Mostafa Aleahmad for “disturbing public order”. They are accused of encouraging protests after a building collapse in May that killed 43 people.
In recent times, the Iranian authorities have carried out numerous arrests, including a figure of the reformist movement Mostafa Tajzadeh, arrested on Friday and charged with “activities against state security”.
Dissident artist Jafar Panahi was arrested and later sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison and a 20-year ban from directing or writing films, traveling or even speaking in the media. However, he continued to work and live in Iran.
He was found guilty of “anti-regime propaganda” after supporting the 2009 protest movement against the re-election of ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the Islamic Republic.
Jafar Panahi notably won a Golden Lion in 2000 for The circleand the Screenplay Award at Cannes in 2018 with three facesthree years after the Golden Bear in Berlin for Tehran Taxi.
Source: BFM TV
