Jafar Panahi: the SRF and the ARP call for the immediate release of the filmmaker, on hunger strike

While the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, imprisoned since last July, began a hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment, the SRF and the ARP called for his "immediate release" on Thursday, February 2. The organizations call for the signing of a petition launched by French-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi, and ask governments to "condemn in the strongest terms the terrible crimes of the Iranian regime against its people," and to "protect the freedom of thought and creation.”

In 2010, Jafar Panahi, 62, was sentenced to six years in prison and a twenty-year ban on directing or writing films, traveling or even speaking in the media; however, he continued to work and live in Iran. He was arrested on July 11 at the Tehran court where he had gone to follow the case of another award-winning director, Mohammad Rasoulof, arrested a few days earlier (and who was released on January 7 for 2 weeks).