Baktash Abtin

Date of Death: January 8th, 2022 Place of Birth: Iran

After graduating from high school, Bektash ABTIN (1974, Iran) became interested in poetry, and in a short time succeeded in publishing three poetry books. Due to his interest in poetry and literature he became familiar with cinema, entering its world by writing a script and playing in a TV movie. Abtin directed his first documentary, called The Solar Eclipse, in 2005 and has realized several documentaries and short features.

A respected poet and author of several books, Abtin was sentenced to five years in prison on May 15, 2019 on charges of “illegal assembly and collusion against national security” and one year for “spreading propaganda against the State”, in relation to his joint authorship of a book on the history of the Iranian Writers' Association, which has been critical of successive Iranian governments.

On January 8, 2022 after contracting Covid-19 and being put into an induced coma earlier in the week, Baktash Abtin died in detention at 48 years old. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders confirmed the writer's death in a statement on Twitter, saying it blamed Iranian authorities for failing to save his life. (Source FRANCE 24 with AFP)