The Colombian film academy supports incarcerated Iranian filmmakers, reported news website Finanzas.
The Colombian Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expressed its opposition Friday to the arrest and sentencing of Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof for charges of propaganda and conspiracy against the Iranian government.
With a letter to the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Colombia, the Colombian film academy joined in solidarity with various international groups protesting their sentences.
In addition to six years in prison, the Iranian directors have been banned from making films, writing scripts, traveling abroad or giving interviews for 20 years. The two are part of a group of Iranian intellectuals who showed their support for the reformist opposition movement and reported a voter fraud in the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
“The penalty muzzled one of the most revealing cinematographers in the world and is an unforgivable act against the basic right of opinion,” according to the Colombian Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.