Iran court sentences filmmaker Jafar Panahi to five more years in prison, his lawyer says

The ruling also imposes two-year bans on travel and on using social media, according to Nili. He said he and Panahi learned of the verdict at the prosecutor's office in Tehran after the director's bank accounts were frozen last week, Variety reported. The charges in the new case were not made public.

The sentence comes on top of a one-year prison term Panahi already faced on a charge of propaganda against the state, Variety reported. Panahi returned to Iran on March 30 after promoting his latest film abroad, according to Variety.

Why it matters: Panahi is one of the best-known filmmakers in world cinema, and the ruling is the latest in two decades of legal action by Iranian authorities against him, including a filmmaking ban imposed in 2010.