Mostafa Azizi ( Persian: مصطفی عزیزی) (born September 20, 1962) is an Iranian

Television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acce ...

and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

Biography

Azizi was born in Arak. A graduate of theoretical economics from

Tehran University The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

, he started his professional life as a writer and editor of educational and scientific programs in the Iranian National Radio in 1986. In 1990, he moved to television and became the director of Computer Animation Unit (CAU). In 1994, he left the IRIB as an employee to open up the "Kelk-e-Khial" as a private film-producing company. In 2010, a collection of short stories authored by him in the Persian language were published in Iran under the title of ''I am Raymond Carver''. Carver, an American author of the 1960s, is said to be a major influence on his work. Since 2010, Azizi resides in Toronto where he is the director of Alternate Dream Productions Inc.

Arrest

Azizi returned to Tehran to visit his relatives in January 2015. On February 1, he was arrested reportedly charged with "insulting Iran's supreme leader," Ayatollah

Ali Khamenei Ali Hosseini Khamenei (; born 19 April 1939) is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third President of Iran, president from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's tenure ...

, and also "spreading propaganda" against the Islamic establishment. The charges apparently stem from some of Azizi's social media posts, although it's not clear which. On June 1, 2015, Branch 15 of the

Islamic Revolutionary Court Islamic Revolutionary Court (), also known as the Revolutionary Tribunal (''Dadgahha-e Enqelab''Bakhash, Shaul, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', Basic Books, 1984, p.59-61) is a special system of courts in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to try ...

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

sentenced Azizi to 8 years in prison.

Abolqasem Salavati Abolqasem Salavati () (born 16 July 1967) is an Iranian judge and former head of the 15th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Iran. In recent years, he had been the judge of numerous controversial cases. He has been sanctioned by ...

was the presiding judge of his court. As of June 29, Azizi is being kept in Section 8 of the

Evin Prison Evin Prison () is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for detaining Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Iranian Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "E ...

waiting for the final decision of the court. He got released on April 9, 2016.

Filmography

*''Pendulum'', feature film, Toronto, Canada, (2018) *''Gavsandough'', TV series, (2008) *'' Rahe Bipayan'', TV series, (2007) *''Talash'', Game show, (1996-2000) *'' Mosafer'', TV series, (2000) *

Bibliography

*''I am Raymond Carver'', Ofogh (2010) *''Shirin's Fortune (Rozegare Shirin)'', Elm (2016)

References

External links

* 1962 births People from Arak, Iran Iranian screenwriters Iranian film producers Living people {{Screen-writer-stub