Iranian filmmaker Rasoulof sentenced to 8 years in prison, flogging

Iranian film director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging just ahead of his planned trip to the Cannes film festival, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Rasoulof, 52, best known for his film “There Is No Evil,” has become the latest victim of the Islamic Republic’s broad assault on all dissent following years of mass rallies.

Writing on X, Babak Paknia, a human rights lawyer representing Rasoulof, said that the judgment was confirmed in a court of appeal and the case had now been sent for enforcement.

According to him, the chief reasons given for the punishment were Rasoulof’s public statements, as well as his continued involvement in making films and documentaries which the court described as “examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country’s security”.

Wednesday’s sentence is the harshest yet handed out to the director.

In 2010, he was sentenced to six years in prison, later reduced to one year, after an accusation of filming without the correct permit.

Another incarceration followed in July 2022, after Rasoulof posted an appeal urging Iranian security forces to stop using weapons during protests prompted by a building collapse in the south-western city of Abadan.

He was released the following February for health reasons, but barred from attending the Cannes film festival, where he was due to serve as a member of the Un Certain Regard jury.