Iran sentences Jafar Panahi to 5 years in prison and orders his assets seized

Iranian film director Jafar Panahi, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2025, has been sentenced in absentia to five years and one month in prison by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran, his lawyer Mostafa Nili said this week. The ruling, handed down on Monday, October 26, 2026, also orders the confiscation of his property and bans him from travelling abroad and from social media for two years.

The sentence

Nili said the verdict was issued by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, which handles security and political cases. He did not say what Panahi had been convicted of. According to the lawyer, the court said it had tried the director in his absence because it could not reach him while he was abroad.

Jafar Panahi's new sentence	Details
Court	Branch 26, Tehran Revolutionary Court
Date of ruling	Monday, October 26, 2026 (in absentia)
Prison term	5 years and 1 month
Property	All movable and immovable assets to be confiscated
Other penalties	2-year travel ban; 2-year social media ban
Status	Can be appealed; bank accounts frozen; not detained as of Monday evening
Earlier case	1 year for "propaganda against the system" (Dec 2025, upheld June 2026)

Iranian activist Hossein Razzagh, who is close to Panahi, said all of the director's bank accounts had been blocked and that he had not been arrested as of Monday evening. The sentence can be challenged at an appeals court.

Background

Panahi, 66, is one of the most celebrated filmmakers of his generation and one of Iran's best-known critics of the authorities. Over the past 20 years he has been repeatedly jailed, banned from travel and filmmaking, and placed under house arrest. In 2010 he was given a six-year sentence and a 20-year ban on making films, which he defied by making films secretly, including Taxi, which won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2015.

He was jailed again in July 2022 after asking about the detention of fellow directors, and was freed in February 2023 after going on hunger strike. He later travelled abroad and in 2025 won the Palme d'Or at the 78th Cannes Film Festival for It Was Just an Accident, a drama he filmed without permission in Iran about former prisoners who believe they have found the man who tortured them. The film went on to an international release and awards campaign, and Panahi attended the Academy Awards nominees luncheon in February 2026.

In December 2025 a Tehran court sentenced him in absentia to one year in prison for "propaganda activities against the system", a ruling upheld in June 2026. Panahi returned to Iran in March 2026, after US and Israeli strikes on the country began. He has continued to speak in foreign interviews against Iran's leadership and the violent treatment of protesters.

Reactions

The verdict was announced by his lawyer rather than by Iran's judiciary, which had not commented publicly. Panahi's previous convictions drew protests from film festivals, directors' guilds and human rights groups around the world, which have repeatedly called for his restrictions to be lifted.

Why it matters

The ruling shows the pressure Iran's authorities are putting on artists and critics during the war with the United States and Israel, when security courts have handed down a series of heavy sentences. Seizing Panahi's property and blocking his accounts also limits his ability to work and support his family even if he is not jailed. For world cinema, it puts one of its most honoured directors at risk of years behind bars.

What happens next

Panahi's lawyers can appeal the five-year sentence. If it is upheld, he could be taken into custody to serve it along with the earlier one-year term. Film bodies and rights groups are expected to call again for the conviction to be overturned.