Mostafa Al-Ahmad, one of the three prominent Iranian filmmakers arrested during Iran’s latest crackdown on dissent, has been released on bail, according to Radio Farda.
The 52-year-old was arrested along with filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi in June, days after signing an open letter calling on security forces in the country to “lay down their arms” during widespread demonstrations over “corruption, theft, inefficiency, and repression,” Radio Farda reported.
Al-Ahmad and Panahi had reportedly contracted COVID-19 in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison and were denied hospital care outside the detention facility, the report said.
Outrage erupted across the country after more than 40 people were killed in May when a 10-storey building collapsed in the southwestern city of Abadan. At the time, public outcry called for corrupted authorities to be held accountable.
The filmmakers’ arrest sparked international criticism from European film and arts festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival.
“The Festival de Cannes strongly condemns these arrests as well as the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists,” festival organizers said. “The festival calls for the immediate release of Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa [Al-Ahmad] and Jafar Panahi.”
“The Festival de Cannes also wishes to reassert its support to all those who, throughout the world, are subjected to violence and repression. The festival remains and will always remain a haven for artists from all over the world and it will relentlessly be at their service in order to convey their voices loud and clear, in the defense of freedom of creation and freedom of speech.”
