Liberty Times reported early on the 29th that an Iranian revolutionary court sentenced Cannes Palme d’Or winner Jafar Panahi to more than five years in prison without notifying him of the hearing. His lawyer says the court treated him as abroad although he is in Iran.
Liberty Times (Taiwan) reported around 1 a.m. Taipei time on the 29th that Jafar Panahi, Iran’s internationally known director, was given a prison term of more than five years in a trial held without him. Foreign outlets such as Euronews put the exact term at five years and one month. The ruling was reportedly first disclosed by Iran’s Emtedad News Agency.
광고 문의 · 300×250A trial held without notice
Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court issued the verdict. According to Nili, the court papers listed Panahi as abroad and unreachable, so he was never told of the hearing. In fact he returned to Iran on 30 March and appeared before an investigative court in August in a separate case. The lawyer said he remains in Iran and faces three ongoing legal proceedings.
Besides the prison term, Euronews reported asset confiscation, a two-year social media ban and a two-year travel ban. The charges have not been clearly made public. Whether Iranian authorities have commented officially on the ruling has not been confirmed.
Repeated legal pressure and a prize-winning career
Panahi was convicted last December of ‘propaganda activities against the regime’ and given one year in prison and a two-year travel ban; an appeal upheld the conviction. He has clashed with the authorities since around 2003, has been jailed twice and has been barred from filmmaking. In 2022 and 2023 he spent 86 days in Evin prison before being released after a hunger strike.
His film ‘It Was Just an Accident’ won the 2025 Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar for best international feature. It follows formerly imprisoned Iranians who weigh revenge on a man they suspect was their jailer and torturer. Earlier he won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2015 for ‘Taxi’, and he has long been respected in world cinema, so reactions abroad may follow, though no specific reaction has been confirmed so far.