In another crackdown on dissidents and artists, Iran arrested three renowned filmmakers last week, as well as a prominent pro-reform politician and the relatives of protesters killed in anti-government uprisings in 2019.
Its directors, Jaffar Panahi, Mohammad Rasolouf and Mostafa Aleahmad, were all outspoken critics of the government. Mr Rasolouf recently organized a social media campaign calling on the country’s security forces to confront the protesters to lay down their weapons and join the people.
The latest arrests come when a new chief takes over the Revolutionary Guard’s powerful intelligence wing, following the ouster of its former head, Hossein Taeb, in late June. According to analysts in both countries, Mr Taeb, an influential and feared figure, was fired from his job after a series of embarrassing failures related to Israel’s campaign to attack Iranian nuclear and military officials and sites.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a public speech in late June that Iranians’ “psychological safety” was threatened by comments on the web and on social media, and called on authorities to take steps to monitor content similar to those enacted during the more repressive 1980s.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran, an independent advocacy group based in New York, said at least 15 activists and dissidents have been arrested in Iran so far this month.
“The new IRGC intelligence chief looks set to establish a new reign of terror soon, just as Khamenei demanded a few weeks ago,” Hadi Ghamei, the organization’s director, said in an interview. “The arbitrary mass arrests are an attempt to silence leading voices and opinion makers.”
In May, another group of prominent documentary filmmakers was briefly arrested and then released pending trial.
The latest arrests sparked outrage at international film festivals. In a statement, the Cannes Film Festival demanded the immediate release of the filmmakers, condemning what it called “the wave of repression clearly underway in Iran against its artists”.
Mr. Panahi won the Best Golden Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015 for his film ‘Taxi’, in which he pretended to be a taxi driver and discussed social issues with passengers, and the Golden Lion Prize of the Venice International Film Festival in 2000 for ‘The Circle’, about the challenges Iranian women face as they fight for more rights in a conservative society.
Mr Rasolouf addressed the topic of the death penalty in Iran in “There is No Evil”, which won the Berlin top prize in 2020. He also won an award at Cannes in 2011 for his film “Goodbye”, which tells the well-known story of young professionals desperate to leave Iran.
Both men had previously been prosecuted on murky charges. In 2011, Mr Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison, banned from leaving the country and banned from making films for 20 years on charges of making anti-government propaganda. Mr Rasolouf was sentenced to one year in prison in 2019 and given a two-year ban from making films and leaving the country, on charges of conspiring with the enemy against national security
Kaveh Farnam, a Dubai-based producer who has been collaborating with Mr. Rasolouf to his films, said the government’s intention was to silence artists. “Their aim is only to create fear and terror among the film and artistic community so that no one dares to criticize them,” he said. “They think if they can take out Rasolouf and Panahi, everyone else will be silenced as well.” said
According to Mr Farnam, Mr Rasolouf and Mr Aleahmad were arrested on July 8 when security forces raided their homes and offices and seized their equipment. They were taken to Evin Prison and placed in solitary confinement, where inmates typically undergo intensive interrogation, he said.
On Monday, a group of supporters of the men, including Mr Panahi, gathered outside the prison to demand their release. Mr. Panahi was called to the prison prosecutor’s office, but when he went there, accompanied by a lawyer and another film employee, he was also arrested, Mr. farnam.
The politician of the reformist faction who was also arrested in the crackdown, Mostafa Tajzadeh, is a former minister and adviser to the president. Mr Tajzadeh said in a television interview that he no longer believed in the Islamic Republic and that Iranians were better off during the Shah’s rule before the 1979 revolution. Mr Tajzadeh, in conversations on social media and in tweet, has blamed Mr Khamenei for much of the current woes in the country, from corruption to economic hardship.
At least eight relatives of protesters killed in the November 2019 anti-government uprising, including parents and siblings, were also arrested. The families of those protesters have become vociferous critics of the government, demanding responsibility for the deaths of their loved ones.
The judiciary has not disclosed the reason for the arrests, nor the charges against the detainees. But their families, colleagues and media reports offer a clue.
Fars News, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported that Mr Tajzadeh was arrested on charges of “acting against national security” and “publishing lies with the intent to distort public opinion”.
State news agency IRNA reported that Mr. Rasolouf and Mr. Aleahmad communicated with Iran’s enemies to create a public crisis and disrupt the “psychological safety” of the public as they gathered signatures demanding responsibility after a high-rise building collapsed. the city of Abadan in May, killing more than 40 people.