Jafar Panahi sentenced to five years in prison in Iran, faces new ruling on top of previous one-year conviction

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to five years and one month in prison in a separate case by a Tehran Revolutionary Court, adding to an existing one-year prison sentence previously upheld against him. The latest verdict was issued in absentia, according to his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, who said the filmmaker was not notified of the hearing beforehand. The charges underlying the new ruling have not been publicly clarified.

According to Nili, the lawyer and Panahi discovered the verdict after the filmmaker’s bank accounts were frozen last week. They subsequently visited the enforcement office at Tehran’s Culture and Media Prosecutor’s Office, where they learned that the court had issued its decision. The ruling also orders the confiscation of Panahi’s movable and immovable assets and imposes a two-year ban on social media activity and international travel.

The implementation of the prison sentences remains discretionary, and it is unclear whether or when Panahi will be taken into custody. His lawyer has said that the director currently has three open legal cases. Despite the latest ruling, Panahi has not been reported to have been imprisoned as a result of this decision.

The new sentence follows a separate one-year prison term imposed on Panahi over charges of propaganda against the Iranian government. That conviction was upheld by a Tehran Revolutionary Court in June 2026, alongside a two-year travel ban and restrictions on his membership in political and social organisations. The latest case is legally separate from that conviction.

Panahi returned to Iran on March 30, 2026, after travelling internationally to promote It Was Just an Accident, his film that won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The film was subsequently selected as France’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards and received an Oscar nomination.

One of Iran’s most internationally recognised filmmakers, Panahi has faced repeated legal action and restrictions throughout his career. In 2010, he was sentenced to prison and banned from filmmaking, writing screenplays, giving interviews and travelling abroad. He continued making films despite those restrictions, including This Is Not a Film, Taxi and No Bears, works that examined censorship and life under restrictive social and political conditions.

Panahi was arrested in July 2022 and detained for approximately seven months before being released in February 2023. His latest film, It Was Just an Accident, draws on themes of imprisonment, trauma and revenge, reflecting concerns that have recurred throughout his work.