A court in Tehran sentenced Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof to flogging, a fine, the confiscation of property, and eight years of detention for the crime of “collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country's security,” his lawyer said on Thursday.
The attorney, Babak Paknia, suggested that anti-regime content often present in many of his works was the basis for the charges.
The Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association condemned the verdict on social media, calling the judgment proof that the Islamic Republic's "legal system is nothing more than an instrument of revenge."
Rasoulof was previously imprisoned in 2010 and 2019 for similar actions and was arrested in 2022 for signing a letter protesting the political repression in the country.
Rasoulof's latest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is scheduled to be shown later this month at the Cannes Film Festival. Regime officials reportedly demanded that he withdraw it from consideration in the prestigious competition.
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