Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi, celebrated Iranian filmmakers whose artistic and intellectual independence has made them targets of the regime, have blamed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for the coronavirus-related deaths of their fellow Iranians. Rasoulof shared a video of Khamenei’s comments from January 2021 in which the ayatollah banned the import of any COVID-19 vaccines made in the US or the UK and wrote in a tweet, “This video shows who is issuing the orders. These ‘orders’ and the ‘agents’ responsible for this mass murder will be remembered by millions of Iranians. The day for justice will come.”
Jafar Panahi shared the same video of Khamenei to his Instagram account and wrote, “Isn’t it finally time for these people to be held accountable for their contradictory remarks? Doesn’t putting the lives of 85 million Iranians at risk and causing the death of hundreds of thousands deserve accountability?”