Acclaimed director Jafar Panahi handed new prison sentence after returning to Iran

The acclaimed Iranian film director Jafar Panahi has been handed a new prison sentence of five years and one month, according to his lawyer.The 66-year-old was handed the sentence after returning to Iran earlier this year, following the start of the US and Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic.The Tehran court also ordered the confiscation of Panahi's “movable and immovable assets,” his lawyer Mostafa Nili told the reformist news site Emtedad in an interview on Tuesday.The sentence was reportedly delivered on Monday, a friend of the director and an Iranian activist based in Europe told The Associated Press.Hossein Razzagh said he spoke with Panahi on Monday evening after the sentencing and the filmmaker had not been detained.The sentence can be appealed but “now all of his bank accounts have been blocked,” Razzagh added. Nili did not say what Panahi was convicted of.The director, who returned to Iran in March, had been previously convicted of “propaganda activities against the system.”Panahi has spoken out against Iran's leadership and condemned violence against anti-government protesters in past interviews with foreign media.Director Jafar Panahi celebrates after winning the Palme d’Or award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival (2025 Invision)He is among the most celebrated of contemporary Iranian directors and has continued making movies despite repeatedly being imprisoned, banned from travelling, and put under house arrest by Iranian authorities over the past 20 years.His latest film, It Was Just an Accident, was made secretly in Iran following a seven-month stint in prison that only ended in 2023 once he went on a hunger strike.It Was Just An Accident premiered at the Cannes Film Festival In May last year and won the Palme d'Or. The thriller, which was inspired by Panahi’s time in prison, follows five formerly imprisoned Iranians who meet a man they suspect tortured them in prison and question whether to pursue vengeance.Panahi has been arrested, detained, and questioned several times by the government over the years. In 2010, after his public show of support for mass protests after the contested presidential election, he was convicted of “propaganda against the state”, given a six‑year prison sentence, banned from filmmaking, and barred from international travel. He was released, but put on house arrest and barred from travelling outside Iran.In July 2022 he was again detained when he visited the prosecutor’s office to inquire about fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad, who had been arrested. He was then put back into prison to serve his 2010 sentence in full, a move that was criticised internationally.Panahi was finally released in February 2023 after going on a hunger strike, and his travel ban was lifted.The director continued to make films despite the government directive banning him, and made the documentary feature This Is Not a Film in 2011, which premiered at Cannes, followed by the Berlinale Silver Bear winner Closed Curtain in 2013, Golden Bear winner Taxi in 2015, No Bears in 2022, and his latest, It Was Just An Accident.