Iranian artist loses appeal, faces lashes

DUBAI (Reuters) – An Iranian film-maker convicted of insulting the Islamic Republic has lost his appeal and now faces jail and lashing, a source said on Monday, as an apparent crackdown on artists and writers intensified ahead of elections this week.

Keywan Karimi, 30, was found guilty last year of “insulting the sacred and spreading propaganda” in a documentary about political graffiti in Tehran called Writing On The City.

An appeals court this week confirmed Karimi’s six-year sentence, suspending five of them, and condemned him to 223 lashes and a fine for “shaking hands with women and drinking alcoholic drinks,” a source close to the issue said.

Court verdicts in such cases are not routinely made public and judiciary officials avoid commenting on them in the media.

Karimi is one of dozens of artists, journalists and business people, including Iranians holding joint US or British citizenship, arrested in the run-up to Friday’s election of parliamentarians and of the clerics who will choose the next supreme leader.

Those are the first national elections since the government of President Hassan Rouhani signed a deal with world powers last July to limit Iran’s nuclear activities in return for an easing of economic sanctions.

The potential opening up to the West has alarmed hardline allies of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the arrests appear to be part of a crackdown on what some officials have called Western “infiltration.”

The same source, who asked not to be identified, said verdicts has been issued this week to at least 12 film-makers, photographers and writers. He said they were under pressure not to talk to the media and make this public.