Fimmaker Panahi arrested by Mullahs in Iran

by Special Correspondent
March 5, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/589/fimmaker-panahi-arrested-by-mullahs-in-iran

Celebrated Iranian film director Jafar Panahi, a vocal critic of the Iranian government, has been arrested in Iran on unspecified charges. Panahi is a supporter of a peaceful protest movement that has attracted many Iranian artists, journalists and students in the wake of the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last June, the newspaper said.

The filmmaker was arrested at his home Monday night with his wife, 20-year-old daughter and 15 guests, when members of Iranian security forces raided the apartment of Panahi. Later, Iranian authorities have freed 14 people arrested at award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi's home but the pro-opposition director remains detained. Panahi's wife and their daughter were among the 14 released late on Wednesday, adding that Panahi and two other people, Mohammad Rassoulof and Mehdi Pourmoussa, were still being held. Apart from Panahi, the other five were identified as Hessam Firouzi, Behzad Mehrani, Navid Khanjani, Mansour Taghipour and Aboufazl Abedini.

As usual, no official reason has been given for their detention. While Iranian and global media said Panahi was arrested for making a film about the unrest which rocked the Islamic republic after the June 12 disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Panahi was producing "an anti-regime film with his colleagues but the security apparatus vigilantly discovered their moves and they were arrested," said leading conservative news website Tabnak.

Opposition website Rahesabz echoed the report and said: "Intelligence officials said Panahi and a movie crew were making an unauthorized film about the incidents linked with the election at his home."

But his son, Panah Panahi, has denied the reports.

And on Tuesday, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said Panahi was not arrested for political reasons or because he is an artist. He was "accused of some crimes and arrested with another person following an order by a judge."

Panahi, 49, is known for his gritty, socially critical movies such as the "Circle," which bagged the 2000 Venice Golden Lion award, "Crimson Gold," and "Offside," winner of the 2006 Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival. In February, the authorities banned Panahi from leaving the country to attend the Berlin film festival.

Earlier At least six human rights advocates were reported to have been arrested in Iran on Wednesday, dampening hopes that the government was easing its campaign of arrests ahead of the Iranian New Year on March 21.

In another signal of continued government pressure, Fatimeh Karroubi, the wife of the opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, wrote in a public letter that progovernment forces had demonstrated outside their apartment building in northern Tehran, pelting the building with tomatoes and eggs.

The Iranian Committee of Human Rights Reporters reported on its Web site that at least five activists had been arrested in Tehran and one in the southern province of Khuzestan. Another report said that two students, in Shiraz and Kermanshah, were jailed after raids on their homes.

Hundreds of Iranians were jailed earlier this year to thwart the opposition's efforts to revive last year's mass protests in time for Feb. 11, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Hopes that the government might be ending its campaign, though slight, were raised in the past week as more than a dozen prisoners were released on bail.

"There was a wave of releases, but there is also a wave of arrests," said Akbar Atri, a former student leader in Tehran who is now a human rights advocate in Washington. He said that bail figures for those released were large, and suggested that the government was simply solving a problem it created with so many detentions.

"The government is not capable of keeping so many people behind bars," he said, "and so it is forced to let some of the prisoners out to make space for new ones."

Mrs. Karroubi wrote in her letter, published on a student Web site, Advarnews, that the demonstrators chanted slogans against Mr. Karroubi through loudspeakers and called on the authorities to confront him.

In the months since Iran's disputed presidential election galvanized the opposition and prompted the pervasive crackdown, Mr. Karroubi has been physically attacked. He was slightly hurt in a scuffle on Feb. 11. His son, Ali, was detained for a day, and he said he was tortured.

The government's immediate focus appeared to be an anti-government demonstration planned for March 16 to coincide with a Zoroastrian celebration, the Feast of Fire, which authorities have banned as un-Islamic.

Last week, Iran's prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, warned that any protesters on March 16 would be "confronted severely and charged with threatening national security."

Meanwhile, human rights groups expressed concern for Mohammad-Amin Valian, 20, a university student who was arrested during a rally against the government on Dec. 27 on charges of throwing rocks and who, according to an opposition Web site, was sentenced to death.

The judiciary announced Feb. 9 that an appeals court had confirmed the death sentence for an unidentified defendant who was one of nine convicted of waging war against God by demonstrating on the Shiite holiday of Ashura. The Web site Green Voice of Freedom said that the defendant was Mr. Valian, and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Related Topics:  International News receive the latest by email: subscribe to weekly blitz's free mailing list