Iran filmmakers want hunger striker colleague freed

فیلمسازان ایرانی خواستار آزادی همکار خود که در اعتصاب غذا بسر میبرد شدند.

TEHRAN
Sat May 22, 2010 6:34am EDT

m02ampd20100522ampt2ampi111213156ampw460ampr2010 05 22T103354Z 01 BTRE64L0TCR00 RTROPTP 0 ARTS FILM BERLIN Iranian director Jafar Panahi poses with his Silver Berlin Bear after the awarding ceremony at the 56th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, February 18, 2006.
Credit: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann




TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian filmmakers called in an open letter for the release of internationally known director Jafar Panahi who is on hunger strike in a Tehran prison, the semi-official news agency ILNA said on Saturday.
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"In view of the existing conditions for... Jafar Panahi, we the undersigners of this letter, a group of independent film makers, call for the freedom and speedy consideration of his conditions and his demands in prison," said the letter by 85 Iranian filmmakers sent to the Iranian government.
Panahi, winner of numerous international awards and a supporter of the opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in last year's disputed presidential election, was arrested in early March and went on a hunger strike earlier this week.
He is protesting against conditions of his incarceration at the notorious Evin prison, demanding access to a lawyer, visitation rights by family members, and his unconditional release until a court hearing in held on his case.
Two senior French ministers called on Iran earlier this month to free Panahi so he could take up an invitation to sit on the jury of the Cannes film festival which opened on Wednesday.
Also on a hunger strike in Evin is Mohammad Nourizad, an Iranian writer and film director who, according to an opposition web site, was severely beaten by security personnel on Tuesday.
Nourizad was arrested late last year after he published on his blog three letters deemed disrespectful to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other senior officials.
Thousands of opposition supporters were detained after the presidential election. Most of them have since been freed but more than 80 people have been jailed for up to 15 years. Two people put on trial after the election have been executed.