Iran Arrests Oscar-Nominated Screenwriter for Criticizing Khamenei

Iran Arrests Oscar-Nominated Screenwriter

An Iranian screenwriter who was nominated for an Academy Award has been arrested after criticizing the government's response to protests.

Mehdi Mahmoudian, a co-writer of the film "It Was Just an Accident," signed a statement condemning Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the deadly crackdown on protesters. He was among several signatories detained on Saturday, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Seventeen prominent lawyers, artists and activists also signed the letter, which held Khamenei responsible for the recent killings and arrests of thousands of protesters across the country. The government has not provided information about Mahmoudian's location or charges, according to BBC Persian.

Mahmoudian, a human-rights activist, has been detained before in Iran, notably when he met fellow filmmaker Jafar Panahi in prison. The arrests come after over a month of demonstrations in Tehran initially sparked by economic hardship that quickly escalated into widespread calls for political change.

The letter blamed the regime's violent response to the protests and called for the prosecution of those behind the repression, stating that the authoritarian apparatus has relied on mass killings to maintain its power while ignoring citizens' rights to seek political change. Mahmoudian, who has been involved in human-rights advocacy, is no stranger to detention in Iran.