Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has gone on hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention at Iran’s notoriously harsh Evin prison, even though his sentence has been declared void by the country’s Supreme Court.
The move comes just days after hopes that the director was on the verge of being released on bail were dashed, even though his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht had successfully challenged his detention.
Panahi’s wife Tahereh Saeedi and son Panah Panahi published a statement from the director announcing his intention to stop eating on their Instagram accounts on Wednesday evening. “I firmly declare that in protest against the illegal and inhumane behavior of the judicial and security apparatus and their hostage-taking, I have started a hunger strike since the morning of the 12th of Bahman (February 1),” wrote Panahi. “I will refuse to eat and drink any food and medicine until the time of my release.
I will remain in this state until perhaps my lifeless body is freed from prison.” The director was arrested in early July amid a crackdown on freedom of expression, after going to Evin prison to enquire the about whereabouts of filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad following their detention a few days previously.
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