Persian TVs Abroad Air TV Film On Final Days Of Jailed Poet

Persian-language television channels Iran International and Voice of America Thursday aired a documentary about the life of Baktash Abtin, an Iranian poet who died in custody in January.

The documentary was made by award-winning filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, himself arrested several times and had his passport confiscated. It aired Thursday evening Tehran time.

Earlier in the day, security forces disrupted ceremonies marking the 40 days since Abtin died of Covid-19 complications following a medically induced coma after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Evin prison, Tehran.

Abtin died in hospital after he was transferred there from prison.

The film, "Intentional Crime," related the life story of the filmmaker and poet through conversations with his friends and family, and examined his final days in jail. Abtin was sentenced to six years in prison in 2019 after conviction for “illegal assembly and collusion against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the state." He had published documents about the history of the Writers’ Association and made comments about censorship.

Some prisoners wrote an open letter in January portraying Abtin’s death as the continuation of the so-called “chain murders,” a series of killings in 1988–98 carried out by vigilantes with links to Iranian intelligence. The letter attacked “inaction” by international human rights organizations over his case.