Iran says acclaimed filmmaker to serve out 6-year sentence

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s judiciary has ordered one of the country’s leading filmmakers to serve out a six-year prison sentence from a decade ago that had never been enforced, as the government seeks to silence criticism amid growing economic turmoil and political pressure. Masoud Setayeshi, spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, announced on Tuesday that award-winning director, Jafar Panahi, perhaps Iran’s best-known film director, had been sentenced to six years in prison in 2011 and had been banned from filmmaking for 20 years on charges of producing antigovernment propaganda, a final verdict that he said should have been implemented at the time.