About 200 Iranian directors and cultural activists issued a protest statement condemning the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulov and Mostafa Al-Ahmed, two directors who previously signed a protest statement entitled “Put down your weapons”.
The latest statement signed by figures such as Asghar Farhadi, Jafar Panahi, Babak Ahmadi, Reza Darmishian, Taraneh Ali Dosti and Abdulreza Kahani called the arrest of Rasul F and Al Ahmad a “planned attack”.
In the aforementioned statement, the security institutions and related institutions were also condemned and accused them of “continuous suppression and pressure on independent and free-thinking filmmakers and not respecting basic individual and social rights.”
On Friday evening, the official news agency “IRNA” while announcing the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulov and Mostafa Al-Ahmed, the two directors, had been accused of “association with the enemies of the revolution” and “objection and mental disturbance”. Community security”, following the collapse of the Metropol building in Abadan, southwest Iran.
It is worth noting that on May 29, more than a hundred Iranian filmmakers issued a statement asking the military forces that “have become a tool to suppress citizens” to lay down their weapons and “return to the arms of the people”. Rasoul F and Al Ahmad were among the signatories of this statement.
According to Kave Varnam, the producer of his film, the latest news about Rasulov’s condition indicates that he has been transferred to the solitary cell of Evin Detention Center and is now being interrogated.
Referring to the information provided by Rasoulov’s lawyers to the director’s family, Kaveh Farnam added: Iran’s security forces arrested Mohammad Rasoulov five years ago on the evening of July 17.
The received information indicates that in 2016 Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Mohammad Rasoulov to one year of imprisonment for directing the film Return.
Meanwhile, 191 moviegoers who protested the arrest of Rasoul F and Al Ahmad, demanded their “immediate and unconditional release”.
The signatories of the statement called on artists, filmmakers and activists from around the world to join them for the release of the arrested artists and critics.
Among the signatories of this statement, we can mention: Ali Mosfa, Fatemeh Motamed Arya, Mojtabi Mirthomasb, Mohammad Yaqoubi, Nasser Zarafshan and Katayoun Riahi.
Source: Lebanon Debate
