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Celebrated Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who has been jailed since March, has gone on a hunger strike to protest against the conditions of his detention, an opposition website reported on Tuesday.
"In a brief phone call from Evin prison he announced his hunger strike," the director's wife, Tahereh Saeedi told Rahesabz website, which champions the anti-government cause of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
His wife said the controversial film-maker did not want to turn into a "guinea pig under torture" and called for "contact with family, access to a lawyer after 77 days and unconditional freedom until a trial."
"In the end I swear to the cinema that I believe in that I will not give up my hunger strike and my only demand is that they hand over my body to my family to bury wherever they want," he was quoted as saying.
Panahi is expected to remain in jail for another two months, his wife told the website.
Panahi's mentor, Abbas Kiarostami -- who has a movie in the main competition of thye Cannes film festival this year -- denounced the hardline government's crackdown on artists and called for his release.
Panahi's current detention prevented him from going to Cannes where he had been invited to sit on the jury that names the winner of the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.
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