Iran upholds Jafar Panahi prison sentence and travel ban

A Tehran court has upheld the one-year prison sentence and two-year travel ban against Jafar Panahi, one of Iran’s most internationally recognized filmmakers, in a ruling that extends the state’s long campaign to punish a director whose films and activism have reached far beyond formal opposition politics. The Tehran Revolutionary Court also kept in place a ban on joining political and social groups and associations.

Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said the ruling can still be appealed within 20 days to the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal, meaning the decision does not amount to immediate imprisonment. The court had earlier convicted Panahi in absentia while he was abroad on the awards campaign for It Was Just an Accident, finding him guilty of propaganda against the regime.

The accusations reported by Panahi’s defense cut across his public life. Iranian authorities said he supported political prisoners, backed the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, signed and circulated a statement in support of a truck drivers’ strike, and posted material critical of the government. Panahi had publicly backed a nationwide truckers’ strike in May 2025, describing it as a “loud call” to the authorities as the labor action spread across the country and disrupted a key part of the economy.

The case fits a pattern that has defined Panahi’s career for more than a decade. In 2010, Iranian authorities sentenced him to six years in prison and imposed a 20-year ban on filmmaking and travel on propaganda-related charges. He was again detained in July 2022 and spent 86 days in Evin Prison before being released in February 2023 after a hunger strike. He was later arrested in July 2023 after going to Evin Prison to ask about fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad.

Panahi’s latest film has only sharpened the political stakes. It Was Just an Accident won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, making Panahi the first Iranian filmmaker to claim Cannes’ top prize since Abbas Kiarostami in 1997. France selected the film as its Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film, and it went on to earn Academy Award nominations for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay. The film’s international reach has made Panahi harder to silence abroad, even as Tehran keeps trying to narrow his movement, his associations and his voice at home.