Iranian Court Sentences Director Jafar Panahi to Five Years in Absentia

An Iranian court has sentenced the film director Jafar Panahi to five years and one month in prison, without him being present to hear the ruling. The Hollywood Reporter reported the judgment on 27 October 2026.

The sentence was issued by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. "In absentia" means the case was decided without the accused in the courtroom. The same branch ordered the confiscation of all of Panahi's movable and immovable property, which covers everything from bank balances to buildings. It also imposed a two-year travel ban and a two-year ban on social media activity.

Panahi returned to Iran in March 2026. According to the same report, he is in the country and has not yet been taken into custody under the new judgment. His lawyer said Panahi's bank accounts were frozen in the week before the ruling came to light. Panahi and his lawyer found out about it at the enforcement unit of the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office, with no prior legal notice. Panahi now has three open legal cases in Iran.

This is not the first time a court has ruled against him. In December 2025, his lawyer, Mustafa Nili, announced a one-year prison sentence, also issued in absentia, on charges of propaganda against the system. That sentence came with a two-year travel ban. Variety later reported that Tehran's Revolutionary Court upheld the one-year term in June 2026. Earlier that year, Panahi had said he would return to Iran despite the sentence.

His history with the Iranian justice system goes back further. In July 2022, he was arrested to serve a six-year sentence that a Tehran court had first handed down in 2010. He was held in Evin Prison and released in February 2023 after seven months.

Panahi is best known outside Iran for his films. His most recent, It Was Just an Accident, won the Palme d'Or, the top prize, at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for an Oscar for best international feature, submitted by France.

Panahi's cases have drawn attention from filmmakers and rights groups for years, and the new judgment adds another layer to a situation that has run since 2022. Because the court has not yet placed him in custody under the latest ruling, the coming weeks will show how the travel ban, the asset freeze and the open cases are applied in practice.