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Mehdi Mahmoudian, the Iranian co-writer of Jafar Panahi’s Academy Award-nominated film It Was Just An Accident has been arrested in Iran for signing an open letter criticising the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the government for their handling of protests that shook the country in January, leaving hundreds dead in their wake.

The screenwriter and journalist signed a joint statement with Panahi and 15 other prominent members of Iranian civil society, decrying the “direct firing of live ammunition at the people, the taking of tens of thousands of lives, the pursuit and arrest of tens of thousands more, assaults on the wounded [and] the prevention of medical treatment” during the riots, which were suppressed after the government cut off the country’s internet and security forces launched a crackdown.

The letter, posted by the Narges Foundation on behalf of jailed Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi, said, “the main obstacle to rescuing Iran from the present catastrophe is Ali Khamenei himself” and that his “confrontational policies” had pushed Iran to a point where the prospect of war loomed over the country.

The signatories demanded the present system of government be replaced by a more democratic model, warning that failure to do so will “plunge the country into a devastating cycle of violence”.

Panahi, who lives in exile, reacted to the news of Mahmoudian’s arrest by posting a note for his fellow signatory. He said the two had met in prison, where Mahmoudian had gained a reputation for his “rare sense of responsibility towards others”. The filmmaker said his co-writer would not only try to care for the basic needs of new prisoners, but also try to comfort them.

The director said he and Mahmoudian spent seven months together in prison and he brought the journalist on board for It Was Just An Accident because of his extensive exposure to the Iranian judiciary and penal system. Their film is nominated in the Best Screenplay and Best International Feature categories at the Academy Awards; it has also won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Panahi said he wasn’t just “a human rights activist with a nine-year history in prison,” but also “a witness, a listener, and a rare moral presence”. He confirmed that two other signatories, Abdollah Momeni and Vida Rabbani, had been arrested alongside Mahmoudian.

Protests that began on December 28 with a strike against inflation in Tehran spiralled into a mass movement calling for the ouster of the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

According to official figures, 3,117 people were killed during the riots and hundreds of buildings were attacked and burned, including 317 government buildings. Rights groups place the death toll in the thousands, especially from incidents of security forces firing directly into crowds of protesters.

Cover photo: Mehdi Mahmoudian/Facebook