A well-known Iranian film-maker and 2020 Berlinale winner Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to several years in prison.

His lawyer, Babak Paknia, wrote on social media platform X that a court in Tehran sentenced the 52-year-old to eight years in prison, of which five years must be served.

The director is also to be punished with lashes.

According to the defence lawyer, the judiciary said the severe punishment was due to violations of national security.

Mr Rasoulof was also ordered to pay a fine. The confiscation of property was also mentioned.

Just over a year ago, Mr Rasoulof was banned from travelling abroad.

The film-maker was only released from Tehran’s notorious Ewin prison in February 2023 after around seven months in jail.

Prior to his imprisonment, he had criticised the collapse of a shopping mall in the south-western Iranian city of Abadan, which left many dead.

Mr Rasoulof, who won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2020 for his film “There is No Evil” about capital punishment in Iran, is considered critical of the regime in the country.

In spite of being banned from film-making, he continued to manage and make films.

He lived alternately in Tehran and Hamburg.

(dpa/NAN)