Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has gone on hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention at Iran’s notoriously harsh Evin prison, even though his sentence has been declared void by the country’s Supreme Court.
The move comes just days after hopes that the director was on the verge of being released on bail were dashed, even though his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht had successfully challenged his detention.
Panahi’s wife Tahereh Saeedi and son Panah Panahi published a statement from the director announcing his intention to stop eating on their Instagram accounts on Wednesday evening.
“I firmly declare that in protest against the extra-legal and inhumane behavior of the judicial and security apparatus and their hostage-taking, I have started a hunger strike since the morning of the 12th of Bahman (February 1),” wrote Panahi.
“I will refuse to eat and drink any food and medicine until the time of my release. I will remain in this
state until perhaps my lifeless body is freed from prison.”
Panahi was arrested in early July amid a crackdown on freedom of expression, after going to Evin prison to enquire the about whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad following their detention a few days previously.
It was announced a few days later that the Iranian authorities had decided to reactivate a six-year sentence originally meted out to Panahi in 2010 alongside a 20-year filmmaking and travel ban.
Nikbakht argued successfully at the Supreme Court in October that the six-year sentence had passed Iran’s 10-year statute of limitations period and was no longer applicable.
He was granted permission to apply for a retrial in a move that should have resulted in Panahi automatically being released on bail but Iranian authorities have hindered the process of activating this until now.
“While we have seen that it takes less than thirty days from the time of arrest to the hanging of the innocent youth of our country, it took more than a hundred days to transfer my case to the branch with the intervention of security forces.” wrote Panahi.
The director said Iranian security agencies had made repeated excuses as to why he was not being released.
“What is certain is that the bullying behavior of this extra-legal security institution and the unquestioning surrender of the judicial authorities once again show the implementation of selective and
tasteful laws,” he said.
“It is only an excuse for repression. I knew that the judicial system and the security institutions have no will to implement the law (which they insist on), but out of respect for my lawyers and friends, I went through all the legal ways to get my rights,” he continued.
“Today, like many people trapped in Iran, I have no choice but to protest against these inhumane behaviors with my dearest possession, that is, my life.”
