News

One month after he was arrested, Jafar Panahi, an internationally
celebrated Iranian director who openly sided with opposition protesters
last year, is still being held without charge and interrogated in a
Tehran prison, the opposition Web site Jaras reported on Friday.

Last month, Iran’s most famous filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami, called for Mr. Panahi’s release in an open letter to the authorities sent to The Lede.

Just after his arrest in March, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported
that a Tehran prosecutor had told Iranian state news agencies: “His
arrest is not because he is an artist and is not political, either.
This individual is a suspect for some crimes.”

A newspaper close to the Iranian government reported at the time,
though, that he had been working on an “anti-state film,” a charge his
son immediately denied in an interview with an opposition Web site.

Mr. Panahi, whose recent films have been banned in Iran, has
express... >>>