Famous Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to lashings and 8 years in prison ahead of Cannes film festival, lawyer says
The award-winning Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison and lashings just ahead of his planned trip to the Cannes film festival, his lawyer told The Associated Press Thursday.
Rasoulof, 51, known for his film “There Is No Evil,” has become the latest artist targeted in a widening crackdown on all dissent in the Islamic Republic following years of mass protests, including over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.
Iranian authorities haven’t acknowledged the sentence but Rasoulof and other artists had co-signed a letter urging authorities to “put your gun down” amid demonstrations over a 2022 building collapse that killed at least 29 people in the southwestern city of Abadan. In the time since then, artists, athletes, celebrities and others have been called for questioning or faced prison sentences.
rapper Toomaj Salehi to death for supporting protests sparked by Amini’s death. U.N. human rights officials issued a statement demanding Salehi’s immediate release and urging Iranian authorities to reverse the sentence. The Revolutionary Court had accused Salehi of “assistance in sedition, assembly and collusion, propaganda against the system and calling for riots,” Raisian said.
Months of unrest following Amini’s death in September 2022 saw hundreds of people killed including dozens of security personnel, and thousands more arrested. Iranian officials labelled the protests “riots” and accused Tehran’s foreign foes of fomenting the unrest.
AFP contributed to this report.
Source: cbsnews.com