Award-winning Iranian director Jafar Panahiimprisoned in Tehran for six months, announced that he had begun hunger strike to protest conditions of detentionThis is stated in a statement released today by his wife.

Jafar Panahi, whose films have won awards at European film festivals, was arrested in July before the wave of protests that has rocked the Iranian regime since September began.

Despite hopes for his release last month, Jafar Panahi remains in Tehran’s Evin prison.

“Today, like many people who are trapped Iran“I have no choice but to protest this inhumane behavior with what I hold most dear: my life,” he said. “I will refuse food, drink and any medicine until I am released,” said the director, whose hunger strike began on February 1.

“I will remain in this state until, perhaps, my lifeless body is released from prison.“, he added.

Jafar Panahi, 62, was arrested on July 11 and sentenced to six years in prison, handed down in 2010 for “propaganda against the system.”

But on October 15, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial, giving his lawyers hope for his release.

Jafar Panahi won the Golden Lion at the 2000 Venice Film Festival for his film The Circle. In 2015, he received the Golden Bear in Berlin for the film Taxi in Tehran, and in 2018 he received the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival for the film Three Faces.

His arrest in July came after he attended the trial of another director, Mohammad Rasulov, who had been arrested a few days earlier.

The latter was released from prison on January 7, having taken a two-week leave for health reasons.

Sources: APE-MPE-AFP.