Iran frees actress Marzieh Vafamehr

DUBAI: Amnesty International says an Iranian appeals court has overturned the lashing sentence against an actress who appeared in a film critical of the Islamic republic’s hard-line policies.

Amnesty’s website says Marzieh Vafamehr was released from prison earlier this week after her sentence of one year in prison and 90 lashes was overturned on appeal.

There was no report on Saturday on Vafamehr’s case in Iranian media.

Vafamehr appeared in the Australian-backed film “My Tehran for Sale,” which was shot in the Iranian capital. It tells the story of a young actress whose stage work is banned by authorities.

It premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2009, but is banned in Iran.