Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi released from prison after going on hunger strike

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been released from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

The news was confirmed to local and social media by Panahi’s wife Tahereh Saeidi and her lawyers.

Lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said: “Although I am satisfied with Mr. Panahi’s release, it must be said that his release should have taken place three months ago after our appeal against his previous court decision was accepted.”

The news was greeted with joy by the global film community who have been clamoring for the release of Panahi for months.

The filmmaker, who is a regular at A-list festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Venice, was jailed after his sentence was previously overturned by the country’s Supreme Court. He went on a hunger strike earlier this week.

The director was arrested in early July in a crackdown on freedom of expression after he went to Evin prison to inquire about the whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, who were detained 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 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.

The director of the white balloon, The circle And taxi has not left Iran since the verdict and was temporarily under house arrest during that time.

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

He was allowed to seek a new trial in a lawsuit intended to result in Panahi’s automatic release on bail, but Iranian authorities blocked the process from starting it.

The director said the Iranian authorities have repeatedly apologized for not releasing him.

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

Since then, thousands of protesters have been arrested as the Islamic Republic’s government has tried to use force to quell the protests and recently began executing protesters.

So far, at least four young men have been executed for their role in the protests and another 100 people have reportedly been sentenced to death on protest charges.