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An Iranian official has said that sentences issued for 25 "documentary makers who have been cooperating with the BBC" will be declared "next week", Mehr reported on 11 May.

The legal adviser to the Iranian Cinema Organization, Behzad Ebtehaj, has reported that Evin Prison's Prosecutor Office has summoned him to express his views on the content of the films that the above mentioned filmmakers had made available to the BBC.

Ebtehaj said: "Most of these films had screening permission for inside the country and content-wise they were not against the revolution."

The official explained that filmmakers have to obtain permission for screening their films outside Iran and "these filmmakers had even sold their products to the BBC network which is considered a hostile network by the Islamic Republic system."

Ebtehaj also said: "Although most of these films are valuable and among the good cinematic productions of our country, one may erroneously assume that their producers have been intentionally collaborating with the aforementioned network because they receive payments [from it]."

The official stressed: "Given that a number of these documentary makers have received some amount of money for their products, the screening of their films was unauthorized."

The official concluded that "the final sentence for the filmmakers will be declared by next week" and he added: "From amongst 25 filmmakers who have been charged, ten are prime suspects and they are actually those artists who received money for the screening of their films by the BBC."

Originally published by Mehr news agency, Tehran, in Persian 0759 11 May 13.

(c) 2013 BBC Monitoring Newsfile. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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