Jafar Panahi’s wife appeals again for jailed Iranian director as hopes for his release fade

In an Instagram post on Thursday, Jafar Panahi’s wife, Tahereh Saeedi, asked for a new appeal for the release of her prisoner as his imprisonment lasted 200 days.

Her statement follows news over the weekend that Panahi may be released on bail after his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht successfully challenged his detention in the Supreme Court last October.

“Last week the news came that Jafar would be released within a week. We were happy again and felt better. A week has passed today and Jafar has not come. Exactly 200 days have passed since Jafar was arrested. We are disappointed,” she wrote.

Panahi was arrested in early July in a crackdown on freedom of expression after inquiring with a prosecutor in Tehran about the whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, who were arrested a few days earlier.

A few days later, it was announced that the Iranian authorities had decided to reinstate a six-year prison sentence originally handed down to Panahi in 2010, as well as a 20-year film and travel ban.

The director whose award-winning works include the white balloon, The circle, taxi and last No bearshas not traveled outside the country since.

The charges and the verdict relate to his presence at the funeral of a student who was shot dead during the Green Revolution in 2009 and his later attempt to make a film about the uprising.

Nikbakht successfully argued that the six-year sentence exceeded Iran’s ten-year statute of limitations and no longer applied.

“Jafar should have been released on bail immediately, but this did not happen,” Saeedi wrote in her post.

According to Nikbakht, the Court of Appeal promised to consider the case and make a decision by the end of this week, but there were no further developments by Wednesday evening.

The working week is Saturday to Wednesday and most public and government offices are closed on Thursdays and Fridays.

“Because the need for Jafar’s freedom is based on the laws they accept, they are the ones whose actions are outside the law,” Saeedi wrote.

Panahi is being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Local media reported last week that Rasoulof was released for two weeks on January 7 due to health reasons.

Iranian media reports over the weekend about Panahi’s possible release suggested he also suffers from a skin condition.

Panahi’s detention preceded the ongoing “Women, Life, Freedom” popular uprising in Iran, sparked by the killing of Mahsa Amini while in police custody on September 16 for not wearing her hijab in accordance with the religiously-based law of the Iranian carry. .

Thousands of protesters have since been arrested, along with journalists and members of the sports and entertainment industry who have joined calls for regime change.

The government of the Islamic Republic has tried to use force to suppress the protests and has recently started executing protesters. So far, four men have been executed for their role in the protests and another 100 people are reportedly on the death toll on protest charges.