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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Philip Oltermann European culture editor

Co-writer of Oscar-nominated film It Was Just an Accident arrested in Iran

Iran Jafar Panahi Ali Khamenei Prison
A woman in a wedding dress and a man in a suit sit on the back of a vehicle. Another man wearing a t-shirt stands nearby. They are in an arid landscape
It Was Just an Accident won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in 2025. Mahmoudian drew on his experience of life behind bars to refine the dialogue. Photograph: AP

A co-writer of Oscar-nominated film It Was Just an Accident has been arrested in Tehran just weeks before the Academy Awards, after signing a statement condemning Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, for recent bloodshed in the country.

The human rights campaigner Mehdi Mahmoudian was detained on Saturday after adding his name to a statement declaring that “the primary responsibility for these atrocities lies with Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and the repressive structure of the regime”.

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