Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to over five years in prison, with his assets confiscated. The grounds for the ruling remain unclear, and the sentence was issued in absentia. Panahi, known for his critical stance against Iran's leadership, faces restrictions on travel and social media for two years, with the decision open to appeal.
An Iranian court has sentenced award-winning filmmaker and director Jafar Panahi to five years and one month in prison and ordered the confiscation of his assets. Panahi's lawyer, Mostafa Nili, shared with Iranian news outlet Emtedad that the filmmaker was sentenced in absentia.
Panahi, currently 66 years of age, won the Cannes 2025 Palme d'Or for his film, It Was Just an Accident. The film was shot clandestinely in Iran, following a seven-month prison sentence that ended in 2023 after the filmmaker went on a hunger strike.
It is unclear on what grounds Panahi has been sentenced. According to Nili, the ruling also bars him from leaving Iran for two years and from any social media activity for the same period of time.
Despite having been sentenced to a year in prison last year in absentia, the director was on an international tour promoting It Was Just an Accident and had returned to Iran this March. This previous sentence convicted Panahi of "propaganda activities against the system."
As part of the ruling, the court has also ordered Panahi's "movable and immovable assets" to be confiscated, as informed by Nili. The sentence was ruled on Monday, October 26, as informed to The Associated Press by a friend of Panahi's based in Europe, who is an Iranian activist. Hossein Razzagh shared that at the time of speaking with the filmmaker on the evening of the 26th, Panahi had not been detained and that the sentence was open to appeal, though "all of his bank accounts have been blocked."
Nili also shared that the filmmaker is currently faced with three open legal cases and was unaware of the hearing date for the newest case. These proceedings only came to light once Panahi's bank accounts were frozen last week.
Commenting on the issue, Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer at Dadban, a legal organisation offering legal counsel for Iranian activists, noted that all the proceedings of the newest sentence—the confiscation of assets and the sentencing itself—could be in violation of the nation's constitution, unless a clear legal notice linking the sentence to an alleged offence could be issued by the authorities.
Panahi, known for his work in post-1979 Revolution Iranian cinema, has previously spoken out against the country's leadership and has spoken up against its violence towards anti-government voices.