Mohammad Rasoulof In An “Undisclosed Location In Europe” After Fleeing Iran Following Eight-Year Prison Sentence Ruling

deadline.com:

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has left Iran and is currently staying in what he described as an “undisclosed location in Europe” in a statement shared with the international press this afternoon.  “I arrived in Europe a few days ago after a long and complicated journey,” Rasoulof said in the statement, which you can read in full below.

News of Rasoulof’s journey comes a week after his lawyer confirmed that Iranian authorities had handed the filmmaker an eight-year prison sentence for “signing statements and making films and documentaries.” Days after the sentence was announced, Rasoulof’s latest film The Seed Of The Sacred Fig was handed a competition spot at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.  “I strongly object to the unjust recent ruling against me that forces me into exile.

However, the judicial system of the Islamic Republic has issued so many cruel and strange decisions that I do not feel it is my place to complain about my sentence,” Rasoulof’s statement reads.  “Death sentences are being executed as the Islamic Republic has targeted the lives of protesters and civil rights activists.

It’s hard to believe, but right now as I’m writing this, the young rapper, Toomaj Salehi is held in prison and has been sentenced to death.