He was serving a term for “anti-state propaganda” and “insulting sacred values” in his works.
Keywan Karimi, a world-renowned Iranian filmmaker of Kurdish origin, was convicted in October 2015. Censors found “anti-state propaganda” and “insults of sacred values” in his documentary Writing on the City. A court sentenced him to six years in prison and 223 lashes. An appeals court reduced the prison term to one year and fined him 20 million rials, leaving lashing in force. He began serving his sentence in November 2016 and was granted a conditional release on April 23, 2017.
In his documentary, Karimi explores political graffiti in Tehran in the period between the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and mass protests against the presidential election outcome in 2009. He is well known for his films The Adventure of the Married Couples, Broken Border and Drum.
Karimi was widely supported by the international film community after the sentence was announced. The issue of his arrest was raised at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. A number of French film industry professionals appealed to governments of France and other European countries, asking to put pressure on Iran to free the filmmaker. The same appeals were heard in March 2017 at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva.
Karimi was released ahead of the presidential election scheduled for May 19. Iran’s current president Hassan Rouhani promised to respect human rights and freedoms of Iranians during the previous campaign. Now he will again compete for the country’s top political post.
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