Chennai: Actor turned politician, Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) leader Seeman would face fresh charges for speaking against migrant workers, a senior police official said here on Sunday.
A case was registered against the NTK leader by Erode (Karungalpalayam) police on February 22, 2023 for making ‘derogatory remarks’ against a community while addressing a public meeting in the western city on February 13.
“In the same speech he (Seeman) has also spoken against migrant workers threatening foisting of cases against them. Hence, to take legal action in this regard, further sections have been added in this case,” a senior State police official said.
The police action comes days after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had reassured his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar that all migrant workers in the southern state are safe and the police have registered cases against two journalists including the editor of a Hindi daily for spreading rumours about attacks on migrants.
Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rosoulof, has been temporarily released from Evin prison in Iran on medical reasons after spending more than seven months in prison, the Iranian media reports
Rasoulof was arrested on July 8, 2022, along with fellow filmmaker Mostafa Al-Ahmed, after being accused of encouraging protests that followed a deadly building collapse in May in the southwestern city of Abadan.
After this tragedy, a group of Iranian filmmakers led by Rasoulof published an open letter condemning “corruption, theft, inefficiency and repression” and asked the security forces to “lay down their weapons”.
Rasoulof’s temporary release comes only a few days after Jafar Panahi’s release.
The release comes as Iran has been gripped in nearly four months of protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested on charges of violating Iran’s strict dress codes.
Tehran: The Iranian authorities imposed a travel ban on the well-known filmmaker Masoud Kimiai, after he expressed his support for the protests that have been sweeping the Islamic Republic for months.
The Independent Filmmakers Association of Iran announced that Masoud Kimiai was planning to leave Iran on Sunday evening to attend the Rotterdam film festival in the Netherlands, but the security officials prevented him from leaving Iran.
The filmmaker was due to travel to the Netherlands to screen his latest film, “Killing a Traitor”, a historical melodrama set in Iran in the 1950s.
Since beginning of nationwide protests in Iran from September 2022, the government of Islamic Republic has banned many actors and people involved in Iranian cinema from leaving the country.
On October 14, Iranian filmmaker Mani Haghighi had his passport confiscated at the airport as he was about to board a flight to attend the BFI London Film Festival.
Filmmaker Mani Haghighi was due to join us at the BFI London Film Festival with his film Subtraction. Authorities in Iran confiscated his passport and he could not leave.#LFF supports Haghighi and all filmmakers in their freedom to present their films around the world. pic.twitter.com/vFhja8EnqS
On November 11, Bahram Radan, a well-known actor of Iranian cinema, published a video on his Instagram page and announced that he was banned from leaving.
اتفاق اخیر جلوگیری از خروجم از کشور مسئلهای بیارزش و رفتاری فراقانونی بود که برای هرکس کوچکترین موضعگیری در مورد اعتراضات اخیر داشته، پیش آمده است.متأسفم که طریقه بیان آن به صورتی بود که برخی دوستان برداشت های دیگری داشتند.
Since September 16, the Islamic Republic has witnessed protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, three days after she was arrested by the morality police for not adhering to strict dress codes.
Dozens, including members of the security forces, died on the sidelines of the protests, of which women are an essential part. The authorities announced the arrest of hundreds of protesters for their involvement in protests.
Iran’s judiciary is to rule on whether to release the film-maker Jafar Panahi on bail after his conviction was overturned by the supreme court, his lawyer said.
Panahi, 62, who has won a number of awards at European film festivals, was arrested on 11 July last year and sent to jail to serve a six-year sentence which had been handed down in 2010 for “propaganda against the system”. He served two months at the time before being granted a conditional release. He was also barred from leaving Iran and making films, and was largely confined to his home until his arrest in July.
But on 15 October the supreme court quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.
“Early this morning, judicial officials told me that they will make a decision about Panahi by the end of the week,” his lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said on Saturday.
“Panahi’s case had remained blocked in the courts since mid-October, but it was finally sent to the court of appeal on Monday to launch the legal proceedings.
“By law, he should immediately be released on bail and his case reviewed again.”
Panahi won a Golden Lion at the Venice film festival in 2000 for his film The Circle. In 2015, he won the Golden Bear at Berlin for Taxi Tehran, and in 2018 won the best screenplay prize at Cannes for Three Faces.
Panahi’s conviction followed his support for mass protests in 2009 against the disputed results of that year’s presidential election, in which the populist leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a second term.
As well as the six-year jail term, the court sentenced Panahi to a 20-year ban from directing or writing films, travelling or speaking to the media. However, he has continued to live and work in Iran and the films he has made have tried to find loopholes in these restrictions.
According to his lawyer, Panahi already had health problems before his arrest, and he contracted a serious skin disease in prison.
Doctors had said he needed to be treated “outside prison”, the lawyer said.
Panahi was arrested in July after he attended a court hearing for a fellow film director, Mohammad Rasoulof, who had been detained a few days earlier.
Rasoulof was released from prison on 7 January after being granted a two-week furlough for health reasons, his lawyer told Agence France-Presse.
Separately, a court ordered the release on bail of the activist Arash Sadeghi, who was detained in October during mass protests against the death in custody of Masha Amini following her arrest for an alleged breach of Iran’s strict dress code for women, the Etemad newspaper reported.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
