Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been given a six-year jail sentence and 20-year work ban for propagating against the Islamic establishment, his lawyer told the ISNA news agency on Monday.
Lawyer Farideh Gheyrat said she would appeal the "very hefty verdict" imposed by the revolutionary court, which is mainly in charge of national security offences.
Panahi was arrested in March for reportedly planning a film critical of the Islamic regime, but released in May on 200,000 dollars bail after going on hunger strike.
In 2006, Panahi won a Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival for Offside, a film about Iranian girls who disguised themselves as boys to watch the national football team in a World Cup qualification game.
A scheduled visit in February to Germany to attend this year's Berlin Film Festival was cancelled after Iranian authorities refused to give Panahi permission to leave Iran.
He was invited to join this year's Cannes festival jury, but his detention kept him away, prompting calls from the French government for Tehran to release him.
Several filmmakers and actors also called for his release. Iran branded international pleas "political propaganda."
The work ban applies to writing scripts, making film, travelling abroad and even giving interviews to local and foreign media, Gheyrat said.
Panahi and other Iranian filmmakers supported the opposition Green Movement, led by Mir-Hossein Moussavi, before and after the June presidential election, which saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to power.
Panahi accused the government of electoral fraud and refused to acknowledge the president's re-election.
Iranian filmmakers claimed that since Ahmadinejad became president in 2005, greater restrictions have been imposed on artists, especially filmmakers.
Panahi and other filmmakers opposed to the president reportedly boycotted Iran's International Film Festival this year, dpa reported.
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