Mehdi Mahmoudian (File photo)
An Iranian screenwriter nominated for an Academy Award was arrested after signing a statement condemning his govt for its deadly crackdown on protesters, a human rights group reported. Mehdi Mahmoudian, a co-writer of the film “It Was Just an Accident,” was among several signatories to the letter who were detained on Saturday, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.Seventeen prominent lawyers, artists and activists signed the letter, which blamed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for the recent killings and arrests of thousands of protesters who took to the streets across the country. There was no information about where Mahmoudian and other signatories were being held, the rights agency said. It also was not clear what they were being charged with, and there has been no public comment from the govt, BBC Persian reported on Saturday. The news outlet cited Hossein Razzagh, a prominent activist.On Sunday, BBC Persian reported that Mahmoudian had spoken to a lawyer, and a post on Mahmoudian’s social media said that he had briefly contacted his family to inform them of his arrest and health, but that he was not allowed to provide further details. The arrests come after more than a month of demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, initially over economic hardship. The protests quickly spread and turned into widespread calls for a new govt. As the demonstrations grew, the protesters were increasingly met with deadly force.The letter held Khamenei directly accountable for the govt’s violent response to the demonstrations and for “the repressive structure of the regime.” “This authoritarian apparatus has relied on mass killings to ensure its survival while ignoring the basic and inalienable rights of citizens — including the fundamental right to seek change in the political system,” it said. The signers called for the prosecution of those behind the repression. Mahmoudian, who has also been a human-rights activist, is no stranger to detention in Iran. He met Jafar Panahi, the director and one of the co-writers of “It Was Just an Accident,” when both were in prison.
