Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to five years and one month in prison by an Iranian court, with an order for the seizure of his assets, in a case whose charges remain unclear.

The director of It Was Just an Accident was sentenced on Monday, according to the Associated Press. Panahi returned to Iran in March, but the allegations behind the latest ruling have not been disclosed.

One of Iran’s most outspoken filmmakers, Panahi has repeatedly criticised the country’s leadership and condemned violence against anti-government protesters. He has previously been convicted of “propaganda activities against the system” and faced imprisonment, travel restrictions and house arrest.

Panahi filmed his Palme d’Or-winning film It Was Just an Accident clandestinely in Iran after being released from a seven-month prison term in 2023. His release followed a hunger strike.

“I felt a huge burden on my shoulders when I left prison that made me feel I owed something to my fellow prisoners who were left behind,” Panahi told The Envelope earlier this year.

He was detained again in 2022 after enquiring about the arrests of fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad. Authorities then reimposed a six-year prison sentence that had remained unenforced since his 2010 conviction. That case was linked to a documentary he was making about the disputed re-election of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the protests that followed.

At the time, Panahi described his detention in a statement from Tehran’s Evin Prison as an act of “banditry and hostage-taking” rather than the enforcement of a judicial sentence.

His lawyer, Mostafa Nili, told Iranian news outlet Emtedad that Panahi was involved in three ongoing legal cases but had not been informed of the hearing date for the latest one, according to The Guardian.

Nili also said the court had imposed a two-year travel ban on the filmmaker and prohibited him from using social media for the same period.