Toronto-Based Filmmaker Released From Iran Prison

Toronto-based Iranian filmmaker Mostafa Azizi who was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran, has been released, his son, Arash Azizi, said.

Azizi wrote on Twitter on April 9 that his father had been freed from prison after being included in an amnesty.

Azizi was reportedly convicted of charges that included spreading propaganda against the Iranian establishment and insulting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The filmmaker had returned to Tehran from Canada to visit his ailing father, and was considering staying when he was arrested in February 2015, his son said.

Rights groups had called for his release.

Based on reporting by AFP and Radio Farda