One of the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of the Iranian drama "It Was Just an Accident" has been arrested in Tehran just weeks before the Academy Awards ceremony, UNN reports with reference to AP.
Film representatives announced on Sunday that Mehdi Mahmudyan was arrested on Saturday. Details regarding the charges against Mahmudyan were not available. But his arrest came just days after Mahmudyan and 16 others signed a statement condemning the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the regime's brutal crackdown on protesters.
Two other signatories, Vida Rabbani and Abdullah Momeni, were also arrested.
Jafar Panahi, the award-winning director of "It Was Just an Accident," released a statement on Sunday condemning the arrest of his co-writer.
"Mehdi Mahmudyan is not just a human rights activist and a prisoner of conscience; he is a witness, a listener, and a rare moral personality — a presence whose absence is immediately felt both within and outside the prison walls," Panahi said.
Panahi also signed the statement from January 28. It states, in part: "The mass and systematic killings of citizens who bravely took to the streets to end the illegal regime are an organized state crime against humanity."
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The film "It Was Just an Accident" is nominated for Best Screenplay and Best International Film at the Academy Awards ceremony on March 15. The film, secretly shot in Iran, was nominated by France for Best International Film.
Panahi, one of the most famous international filmmakers, has made films while imprisoned, under house arrest, and banned from entering. "It Was Just an Accident," a revenge drama and winner of the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival, was inspired by Panahi's last stay in prison. It was there that he met Mahmudyan. Panahi called him a "pillar" for other prisoners.
The screenplay for "It Was Just an Accident" was written by Panahi, Mahmudyan, Nader Saiver, and Shadmer Rastin.
Last fall, Panahi was again sentenced to a year in prison and a two-year ban from leaving Iran after being found guilty of "propaganda activities against the system." Panahi, who traveled abroad with the film, said he would return to Iran despite the verdict.
Panahi has repeatedly spoken out against the repression.
"As we stand here, the state of Iran is shooting protesters, and a brutal massacre is taking place on the streets of Iran," Panahi said last month at the National Board of Review Awards ceremony in New York. "Today, the real scene is not on screens, but on the streets of Iran. The Islamic Republic has unleashed bloodshed to delay its collapse."