Dissident Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof has received an eight-year prison sentence, as well as a fine, confiscation of his property and flogging, by an Iranian court, Rasoulof’s lawyer Babak Paknia announced on Wednesday.

Paknia said the verdict was issued by 29th branch of the Islamic Revolution Court and confirmed in the 36th branch of the Aina Court of Appeals. According to Paknia, the court found that Rasoulof’s public statements, as well as his films and documentaries “were examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country’s security.”

Rasoulof has been one of the Iranian film industry’s most outspoken critics of Tehran’s hard-line regime. And he has paid the price. The director was arrested in July 2022 for signing a petition calling on security forces to exercise restraint in relation to popular protests. Released temporarily in February 2023 on health grounds, he has remained under house arrest ever since.

Last year Cannes invited Rasoulof to serve on its Un Certain Regard Jury, but he was barred from leaving Iran. Iranian authorities put the director under pressure to withdraw Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree from Cannes entirely.