Turkish director jailed in Iran for carrying liquor bottle

Müge Serçek Biroğlu ISTANBUL

Çetin Tunca has been sentenced to two months in jail.

A Turkish director of photography, who has worked on 127 movies in his 47-year career, has been jailed in Iran for carrying an alcoholic drink.

Çetin Tunca, 76, who also lectures on cinematography at Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan University, was recently caught by the Iranian authorities with a bottle of liquor in his bag at Tabriz Airport.

He has been sentenced to two months in jail for the offence, Hürriyet has learned.

Tunca is one of the most experienced Turkish cinema artists living today, and his work as the director of photography on the classic drama “Selvi Boylum Al Yazmalım” (The Girl with the Red Scarf) won him a Golden Orange award at the Antalya International Film Festival in 1978.

Although Iran legally forbids Muslim citizens from carrying alcoholic drinks, Iranians are reportedly the third highest consumers of alcohol in Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries, behind Lebanon and Turkey where alcohol consumption is not banned.