International Documentary Association (IDA) calls on the Iranian authorities to vacate the sentence imposed on filmmaker Jafar Panahi by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, to rescind the order confiscating his assets and the bans on his travel and social media use, and to overturn his earlier conviction for “propaganda against the system.”
According to multiple published reports, the court has sentenced Panahi to five years and one month in prison, ordered the confiscation of all his assets, and banned him for two years from leaving Iran and using social media. The charges have not been made public. It has been reported that Panahi was given no notice of the hearing and learned of the verdict only after his bank accounts were frozen. The court proceeded in absentia because he was outside Iran. He has been in the country since returning earlier this year, and he was present at the same court for a hearing in another case on the day a warrant for his arrest was issued.
This is the second prison sentence in less than a year. The first, a one-year sentence for “propaganda against the system,” was issued in absentia in December 2025, and upheld on appeal in June 2026. He faces further open cases.
Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Covenant protects freedom of expression and guarantees the right to be informed of criminal charges, to be tried in one’s presence, and to leave one’s country. A conviction for “propaganda” that punishes protected expression, and a further conviction on undisclosed charges without notice or a hearing are incompatible with these obligations. The confiscation of Panahi’s assets and the bans on travel and public communication would prevent him from working as a filmmaker.