Oscar nominated Iranian screenwriter freed after seventeen days in prison

MMMehdi Mahmoudian walked out of Nowshahr prison in northern Iran on February 17, 2026, after spending 17 days locked up. Iranian intelligence agents arrested him on January 31 in Tehran for signing a public statement that directly blamed Supreme Leader AKAli Khamenei for ordering the massacre of protesters. The Revolutionary Court set bail at 6.5 billion tomans, roughly $10,000.

The arrest targeted signatories of the 'Statement of the Seventeen,' issued January 28, 2026, by seventeen prominent Iranian human rights defenders, filmmakers, lawyers, and civil society activists. The statement accused Khamenei and the Islamic Republic's governing structure of crimes against humanity during the January crackdown, citing live ammunition fired at civilians, mass killings, arbitrary arrests, attacks on wounded people, and denial of medical care.

Two other signatories were arrested alongside Mahmoudian and released on the same terms

VRVida Rabbani is a journalist who has covered political prisoners and human rights abuses

AMAbdollah Momeni is a veteran student activist leader who spent years in prison after the 2009 Green Movement protests All three had been imprisoned before for political activity.

Mahmoudian first went to prison in 2009 after documenting systematic torture at the Kahrizak Detention Center, where at least three detained protesters were beaten to death by guards after the disputed 2009 presidential election. His documentation, including a letter to Khamenei detailing torture, forced drug use, and sexual violence among inmates, helped lead to the facility's closure in July 2009. He served five years on charges of 'mutiny against the regime.'

Mahmoudian and director JPJafar Panahi first met as fellow prisoners at Iran's Evin prison in 2022

Panahi had been arrested after asking authorities about the detention of fellow director MRMohammad Rasoulof

The two spent seven months together behind bars and became close Panahi later recruited Mahmoudian to co-write the screenplay for 'It Was Just an Accident' because Mahmoudian had spent nine years total in Iranian prisons and could make the dialogue about former prisoners 'believable.'

'It Was Just an Accident' follows five former prisoners who believe they've found the man who tortured them and must decide what to do with him. Panahi shot the film secretly in and around Tehran, in remote desert locations, inside vehicles, and on city streets, defying a government ban that has prohibited him from making films since 2010. The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in May 2025 and earned Oscar nominations for Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay.

The January 2026 protests that triggered Mahmoudian's arrest began on December 28, 2025, over economic grievances and grew into the largest uprising since the 1979 Islamic Revolution

NPR reported at least 6,126 people killed

Iran International, citing leaked government documents, put the death toll at over 36,500 in the January 8-9 crackdown alone A UN fact-finding mission previously concluded Iran committed crimes against humanity during the 2022 crackdown, and human rights organizations say the 2026 violence far exceeded it.

After Mahmoudian's arrest, Panahi spoke publicly to NPR and called Iran a 'failed state.' He said the regime arrests writers and artists because their work makes state violence visible to the world. The timing of Mahmoudian's arrest, weeks before the Oscar ceremony, drew international media attention and put pressure on Iran at a moment when the regime was trying to control information about the massacres.