DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has relased an award-winning filmmaker greater than six months after arresting him for criticizing the federal government, a pro-reform newspaper reported Monday.

Mohammad Rasoulof, whose 2020 movie, “There’s No Evil,” received the highest prize on the Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant, is one among a number of distinguished artists, athletes and different celebrities detained in current months for criticizing authorities.

He was arrested in July for criticizing the federal government’s crackdown on protests within the southwestern metropolis of Abadan over a lethal constructing collapse. Two months later, nationwide protests broke out after a 22-year-old girl died within the custody of the nation’s morality police.

The Shargh newspaper, which is related to the nation’s reform motion, stated Rasoulof had not too long ago been furloughed from jail and was formally launched, with out specifying the dates or offering additional data. There was no official remark.

Earlier this month, Iran launched famed director Jafar Panahi, who was arrested in July after inquiring concerning the detention of Rasoulof and one other colleague. Authorities additionally launched Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti on bail, after she was detained for criticizing the crackdown on the newest protests.

Iranians took to the streets over the September demise of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian girl who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s strict Islamic gown code. The protests escalated into requires the overthrow of the nation’s ruling clerics, marking one of many greatest challenges they’ve confronted since coming to energy within the 1979 revolution.

No less than 529 protesters have been killed and practically 20,000 arrested since these protests started, in keeping with Human Rights Activists in Iran, a bunch that has carefully monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities haven’t launched official figures for these killed or arrested.

“There Is No Evil,” which tells 4 tales loosely related to the usage of the demise penalty in Iran, received the Golden Bear prize at Berlin in 2020. Rasoulof wasn’t there to just accept the award as a result of a journey ban imposed on him by Iranian authorities.