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“It was just an accident” director Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to 61 months in prison by Iran’s Revolutionary Court on top of a previous year’s sentence, according to the reformist Emtedad media group.
Panahi has been in Iran since late March after attending the Academy Awards, where “It Was Just An Accident” was nominated for Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay. The film won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
It is not clear when or even if Panahi would be imprisoned, since the sentence in absentia that the court gives is optional. The court has also ordered the confiscation of Panahi’s movable and immovable assets as well as a two-year ban on using social media and traveling outside Iran. Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told Emtedad that Panahi had discovered the sentence when he found out that his bank account was frozen.
It is also not clear what Panahi has been accused of in connection with the sentence, although the filmmaker has fought against the authorities of his country since he was banned by the courts from making films for 20 years in 2010. Nevertheless, Panahi has made “It Was Just an Accident” and other films that secretly criticized the Iranian government.
As a result of these films, a one-year prison sentence was handed down on charges of creating “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” which was confirmed last June. While serving seven months in prison in connection with anti-government protests, Panahi has largely avoided the sentences that came with making films due in part to his global image in the cinematic world.
Panahi is one of only four filmmakers to win the Palme D’Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He received the Golden Lion in 2000 for his film “The Circle” and the Golden Bear in 2015 for “Taxi,” in which Panahi posed as a Tehran taxi driver and chatted with fellow Iranians while offering free rides.
