Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has upheld a one-year prison sentence against Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi who in December had been sentenced in absentia on charges of engaging in propaganda activities against the Iranian state.
Panahi’s lawyer Mostafa Nili announced the decision by the court to reject the director’s appeal during a press briefing in Tehran on Sunday, according to independent film journalist Mansour Jahani and other sources.
This sentence can now be appealed to the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal within twenty days, the lawyer said. This means that it will not lead to Panahi’s immediate incarceration.
Panahi returned to Iran at the end of March shortly after the ceremony for the 98th Academy Awards in which his latest film “It Was Just An Accident” made it to the nomination stage as France’s candidate in the Best International Feature Film Category.
Over the past two decades Panahi has had frequent run-ins with the Iranian authorities.
