Iranian film director Jafar Panahi starts hunger strike in prison - rights group

Iranian film director Jafar Panahi has started a hunger strike in prison to protest against authorities' refusal to release him temporarily on bail pending retrial, the activist HRANA news agency reported on Thursday.

Panahi was detained in July and told he would serve a six-year prison sentence originally issued by a Tehran court in 2010, amid a stepped-up crackdown on dissent in the Islamic Republic.

"According to the law, I should have been released on bail after my request for retrial was accepted but my case has been delayed for more than 100 days," the 62-year-old film director wrote in a letter, according to HRANA.

"This is in stark contrast with the speedy trials of innocent youth which are brought to the gallows 30 days after their arrest," added the director, who won the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or prize for his 1995 movie "White Balloon".

There was no immediate reaction to the HRANA report from Iranian authorities on state media.

Iran's judiciary said in July Panahi would serve a six-year sentence over charges of "propaganda against the system" and inciting opposition protests after the 2009 election that led to months of political turmoil.

Since then, nationwide protests sparked by the death in police custody of Kurdish Iranian young woman Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 2022 have represented one of the toughest challenges to the Islamic Republic.

At least four people have been hanged since the demonstrations started, according to the judiciary. Iran has accused foreign enemies of fomenting the unrest.

Panahi has won several international awards, including the 2015 Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear for his film "Taxi".