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Jafar Panahi Goes on Hunger Strike to Protest Detention at Evin Prison
Jafar Panahi Goes on Hunger Strike to Protest Detention at Evin Prison,Panahi is protesting his detention in Evin Prison. The director should have been released to await a retrial on charges stemming from 2009’s Green Revolution. He has made such films as ‘Taxi,’ ‘The Circle,’ and ‘No Bears.’

Jafar Panahi Goes on Hunger Strike to Protest Detention at Evin Prison

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention at Evin Prison. His wife, Tahereh Saeedi, and son, Panah Panahi, published his statement on their Instagrams. Translated by Deadline, it reads, “I firmly declare that in protest against the illegal and inhumane behavior of the judicial and security apparatus and their hostage-taking, I have started a hunger strike since the morning of the 12th of Bahman (February 1),” he wrote. “I will refuse to eat and drink any food and medicine until the time of my release. I will remain in this state until perhaps my lifeless body is freed from prison.”

Panahi, who has made the films The Circle, Taxi, and No Bears, was arrested in July. He came to Evin with other members of the Iranian creative community to protest the detentions and locate the whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad. It was later announced that Iranian authorities had decided to reactivate a six-year prison sentence Panahi had received in 2010 that was connected to the 2009 Green Revolution. In October, Iran’s Supreme Court declared that Panahi’s sentence had passed the country’s ten-year statute of limitations; this should have granted Panahi immediate release while he awaited a retrial, but that did not happen. “Today, like many people trapped in Iran, I have no choice but to protest against these inhumane behaviors with my dearest possession, that is, my life,” the director wrote.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Tahereh saeedi (@taherehsaidii)

Panahi was detained before the protests began across Iran in response to the killing of Mahsa Amini. Since then, thousands of protesters have been arrested. Per Deadline, at least four have been executed and another 100 are reported to be on death row.

Sources

Deadline

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