Mehdi Mahmoudian, the co-screenwriter for the Academy Award-nominated feature It Was Just an Accident, was arrested on Saturday in Iran after signing a statement criticizing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei’s actions. Reports state that Mahmoudian was arrested in Tehran alongside activists Abdullah Momeni and Vida Rabbani, who also signed the letter condemning Khamenei’s actions as a leader. Seventeen people in total signed the statement including It Was Just An Accident’s director Jafar Panahi as well as other Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, now in exile in Germany after being sentenced to eight years in prison and a “flogging” by Iranian authorities in May 2024 after his political drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig was selected to premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

Panahi has released a statement condemning the detention.

I met Mehdi Mahmoudian in prison. From the very first days, he stood out—not only because of his calm demeanor and kind conduct but also because of a rare sense of responsibility toward others. Whenever a new prisoner arrived, Mehdi would try to provide them with basic necessities and, more importantly, offer reassurance. He became a quiet pillar inside the prison—someone inmates of all beliefs and backgrounds trusted and confided in.
We spent seven months behind bars together. A few months after his release, while I was working on the screenplay for It Was Just an Accident, I asked him to help refine the dialogue. His nine years of imprisonment had given him direct, lived knowledge of the judicial system and prison life. Also, his extensive fieldwork in human rights had made him a reliable and authoritative source for consultation.I remember during the shooting of It Was Just an Accident, we filmed the 13-minute shot of tying the interrogator to a tree one night, from dusk to dawn, but it didn’t turn out right. The following night, I brought Mehdi to the set to help, drawing on his understanding of interrogators and the fine details we needed to get right. That night, with Mehdi’s help, we finally succeeded in capturing the shot.Forty-eight hours before his arrest, we spoke on the phone and then exchanged a few messages. I sent him my last message at four in the morning. By noon the next day, there was no reply. I grew worried and contacted mutual friends; none of them had heard from him. A few hours later, BBC Persian officially announced that Mehdi Mahmoudian, along with Abdollah Momeni and Vida Rabbani, had been arrested.Mehdi Mahmoudian is not just a human rights activist and a prisoner of conscience; he is a witness, a listener and a rare moral presence—a presence whose absence is immediately felt, both inside prison walls and beyond them.

Panahi was arrested and imprisoned in 2022 in Iran’s Evin prison after inquiring at the prosecutor’s office about the arrest made of Rasoulof earlier that year for protesting. Panahi was released in 2023 only due to a hunger strike and is set to appeal the case this year. It Was Just an Accident is his first film since his imprisonment, co-written by himself, Mahmoudian, Shadhmer Rastin, and Nader Saeiver, and details a former political prisoner who questions whether to exact revenge on the man he believes is his former captor. The thriller feature debuted at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or. The critical acclaim has not stopped there, as the project has also been nominated for two Academy Awards in the categories of Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature.
In the letter, see the full statement below, Mahmoudian and other signatories condemn Khamenei for allowing the authorization of “mass and systematic killing of citizens” in suppression of government protests happening earlier this month. The Iranian arresting authorities have yet to release a statement or give details about the arrest and the charges against the detainees.

Khamenei Is Responsible for These Horrific Times in Iran
Honorable, courageous, and grieving people of Iran,
The mass and systematic killing of citizens who bravely took to the streets to bring an end to an illegitimate regime constitutes an organized state crime against humanity. The use of live ammunition against civilians, the killing of tens of thousands, the arrest and persecution of tens of thousands more, the assault on the wounded, the obstruction of medical care, and the killing of injured protesters amount to nothing less than an assault on Iran’s national security and a betrayal of the country.
The primary responsibility for these atrocities lies with Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and the repressive structure of the regime. This authoritarian apparatus has relied on mass killings to ensure its survival while ignoring the basic and inalienable rights of citizens—including the fundamental right to seek change in the political system. The systematic labeling of protesters as “seditionists,” “rioters,” “vandals,” or “terrorists affiliated with enemies” is a deliberate attempt to deny the Iranian people their basic right to self-determination.
The bitter experiences of recent decades have demonstrated that the principal obstacle to rescuing Iran from its current crisis is Ali Khamenei and the regime of religious despotism he leads. Each day this regime remains in power, it deepens society’s collapse, spreads death and destruction, and drives the country further toward irreversible ruin. For years, Iran has been trapped in crises caused by ill-conceived confrontational policies, and today, the risk of war—resulting directly from the continuation of this regime—looms over the nation more than ever.
At this critical historical moment, when the future of Iran is darker than at any other time, we reaffirm the urgent necessity of justice for those killed and the immediate release of all political prisoners. While we recognize that unchecked power does not willingly submit to change, we believe that the only path to saving Iran lies in the prosecution of all those who ordered and carried out acts of repression and in bringing an end to the un-republican and inhumane ruling regime.
We call for the formation of a broad national front to organize a referendum and establish a constituent assembly, enabling all Iranians of all political beliefs to participate in a democratic and transparent process to determine their political future.
We warn that failure to pursue this path will condemn Iran to a devastating cycle of violence.
May the sun of freedom rise over our people and our homeland.