According to the agency, Rasoulof and Al-Ahmad were arrested for releasing a statement titled “Put down your weapons” in which they called on the security forces to “lay down their weapons and return to the country’s prison” during street protests. protests following the collapse of a building in the southwestern city of Abadan in May, killing at least 41 people.
Rasoulof was awarded the Golden Bear Award from the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020 for his film No Evil, about the death penalty, which was secretly filmed in defiance of Iran’s state censorship. Shortly after receiving the award, he was sentenced to one year in prison for making three films, which authorities saw as “propaganda against the regime”, while he was banned from making films and traveling abroad. .
In 2009, he was arrested in connection with protests against election results and sentenced to six years in prison, reduced by the Court of Appeal to one year.
Two years later, Rasoulof and his colleague Jaafar Panahi were arrested for taking pictures of them without permission. They were sentenced to six years in prison and banned from making films for 20 years on charges including “propaganda against the ruling regime.” However, this decision was also reduced to one year after the appeal.
In the same context, the Fars news agency reported that Rasoulof had “a criminal record for his actions against national security in recent years”, accusing him of using an Islamic pardon against him to free to pursue his filmmaking activities ”.
Source: Al-Akhbar
