Iranian news outlets report that dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was released from prison over the weekend. Rasoulof has been in and out of Evin jail since the beginning of 2023. His jail sentence was suspended due to health reasons.
There is no indication of how long he will remain out of jail this time. His lawyer Maryam Kianersi told the French news agency AFP on Saturday that Rasoulof had been released. She had already announced a two-week suspension of his sentence on January 11 for health reasons.
He was detained after calling on security forces to exercise restraint in handling protests over a deadly building collapse. Rasoulof signed the “Lay Down Your Arms” petition which landed him in jail. He won the Berlinale Golden Bear in 2020 for There is No Evil. The film tells four stories loosely connected to the use of the death penalty in Iran. He and fellow filmmaker Mostafa Al-Ahmad were arrested last July. The temporary release of Rasoulof comes days after Jafar Panahi was released from Evin on bail. He had been arrested a few days after Raoulof and Al-Ahmad after going to ask about their whereabouts. The arrests were part of a crackdown against protesters by the authoritarian Islamic Republic regime last summer. It preceded the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising caused by the beating, arrest, and death of Mahsa Amini last September.
Thousands of protesters have been arrested and detained since the anti-regime protests began. The regime has begun to execute some prisoners. Rasoulof has a long history of being at odds with the regime, as does Panahi.
He has been arrested and had his passport confiscated a number of times over the past 15 years for his films exposing the reality of living under its strict governance, including Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013) and A Man Of Integrity (2017).
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Both films world premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard where they won the Fipresci prize and best film prize respectively.
Rasoulof made it to Cannes in 2017 with A Man Of Integrity and traveled the festival circuit with the film until his passport was confiscated on his return from Telluride in September of that year.
Rasoulof, 50, was imprisoned on July 8 for signing the petition against the use of weapons by security forces during May protests over a building collapse in the southwestern city of Abadan. Iran’s Shargh newspaper, which is Iran’s leading reformist publication, also reported on Rasoulof’s furlough. He is one of Iran’s most prominent directors though none of his films have been shown in Iran. They are banned.
The regime has not commented on his release, or on the continued detention of Al-Ahmad.
