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Iran’s main filmmakers’ union calls on authorities to release renowned dissident director Jafar Panahi

The primary union of Iranian filmmakers demanded on Tuesday that the government free famed dissident director Jafar Panahi, who has been detained for six months.

One of Iran’s most celebrated filmmakers, Panahi, 62, was detained on July 11 and is currently serving a six-year term from a judgement from 2010.

In a statement published on its website, the House of Cinema, which unites Iranian professional filmmakers, demanded his release ‘as quickly as possible.’

Without going into further detail, it requested that Iran’s judicial system consider the filmmaker’s ‘physical condition and disease.’

In addition to winning best screenplay at Cannes for ‘Three Faces,’ Panahi also took up top honours in Venice for ‘The Circle’ and Berlin for ‘Taxi.’

On top of his six-year sentence, he was handed a 20-year ban from making or writing films, travelling or even speaking in the media,.

He was convicted of ‘propaganda against the system’ after supporting 2009 protests over the disputed re-election of then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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