The Los Angeles Times has reported that the celebrated Iranian filmmaker and opposition supporter, Jafar Panahi, has been sentenced to six years in prison and barred from making films or participating in political activity for two decades.

Panahi, 50, is the director of internationally renowned Iranian art films such as “The Circle” and “Crimson Gold,” which delved into Iran’s complex social problems. He was a supporter of the protest movement that sprang to life after the disputed 2009 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was arrested in March on charges of conspiring to make an unauthorized movie that chronicled the movement and released on bail 12 weeks later pending his sentencing.

His lawyer, Farideh Gheirat, told the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency that the Revolutionary Court had handed Panahi the six-year sentence and barred him from writing screenplays or traveling abroad for 20 years. Gheirat said the sentence was disclosed Saturday.