Mr. Jaafar Panahi, who has been in jail since last March, had previously been arrested for attending a memorial ceremony in the honor of martyrs of the Iranian people’s uprising held in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in summer of 2009.
He has not been allowed to see his family and his lawyer in the past three months and has been subjected to inhumane treatments, beatings, torture and abuse. He has gone on hunger strike since a few days ago.
The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations as well as unions and syndicates concerned with film makers and artists to condemn Mr. Panahi’s arrest and mistreatment by the clerical regime and urges them to take measures to get him and other political prisoners released in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 20, 2010