Jafar Panahi Sentenced to Five Years in Prison: Palme d’Or Winner Faces New Trial

TVS News AI redaktionell betreut präsentiert Jafar Panahi zu fünf Jahren Haft verurteilt: Palmenwinner vor neuem Prozess.

Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to five years in prison in a new case in Iran. The director previously received the Palme d’Or in Cannes for “Un simple accident.”

New Case and Additional Sanctions

Under the new case, Panahi will serve five years in prison. In addition to the prison sentence, the seizure of all his movable and immovable property was ordered. He is also to be banned from social media for two years and from travel for two years.

The specific charges were not identified, according to Franceinfo Culture. According to his lawyer Mostafa Nili, the court sentenced Panahi to five years and one month in prison and ordered the seizure of all his assets. Nili told the Iranian news agency Isna that the court had also imposed the stated bans.

The court has imposed five years and one month in prison on my client and ordered the seizure of all his movable and immovable property.

Palme d’Or Winner Faces New Trial

The 66-year-old director is a central figure in Iran’s New Wave. His film “Un simple accident,” which was shot clandestinely in Iran, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025.

Previously, Panahi was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison in December for alleged “propaganda activities” against the state. He has already spent time in prison twice: for 86 days in 2010 and for seven months between 2022 and 2023. He was released following a hunger strike.

Reactions and Open Questions

Nili said he learned of the new conviction after Panahi told him last week that his bank accounts had been blocked. According to the lawyer, the director returned to Iran during the war that began in February between Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic. It was not known whether he was still there.

Panahi currently has three ongoing cases. According to his lawyer, he was not informed of the date of the latest hearing. He did not publicly react to the conviction. In an earlier statement, he had spoken out in January against the suppression of government-critical protests in Iran.