Ali Farmani was nominated for an award for best sound for the film Va Kas Che during the Cinema Vérité Iranian Film Festival in 2019. Likewise, the film Mr Ali, directed by Kamran Heydari, and for which Farmani was assistant director and sound engineer, represented Iran at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and won acclaim from festival audiences.

On January 8, 2020, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Air Defense Forces shot down a Boeing 737 Ukrainian International Airlines Tehran flight to Kiev, Ukraine, with two surface-to-air missiles just outside Tehran airspace. All 176 passengers and crew aboard the flight were killed.

On January 11, 2020, the Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces published a statement which confirmed that the Ukrainian International Airlines passenger plane was unintentionally targeted and shot down by Iran as a result of human error. The statement prompted a wave of widespread protests in cities across Iran, leading to several arrests.

Ali Farmani attended a gathering for the victims on January 12, 2020 in Ma’aliabad, Shiraz, where he was arrested.

A relative of Farmani spoke of his arrest at the gathering, saying: “He and a number of other protesters were arrested in one of the side streets outside of the protest area just a few minutes after the rally in Ma'aliabad had finished. It is still unclear on what charges he is being detained. Mr. Farmani has only been allowed to have two brief phone calls with his family since his arrest.”

After the arrest, security officers searched Farmani's home, confiscated his mobile phone, several external hard drives, and his laptop.

Farmani was detained for 36 days in solitary confinement at a secret detention centre of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization in Shiraz. He was later released on bail until the end of court proceedings against him.

An informed source told Journalism is Not a Crime that Farmani's interrogations focused on his reason for attending the protest rallies, his foreign travels and his attendance at various film festivals.

Farmani’s trial took place over the course of three court sessions in the spring of 2020. He was initially told that he had been accused of six charges, however, on June 16, 2020, Branch 1 of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts of Shiraz, presided by Judge Seyed Mahmoud Sadati, sentenced him to five years imprisonment on a single charge of “gathering and colluding with the intention of undermining national security.” He was sentenced to five years in prison, according to Article 610 of the Discretionary Punishment Laws, with reference to Articles 2, 18, 164 of the Islamic Penal Codes. But because of his lack of a criminal record and in accordance with Article 46 of the Islamic Penal Codes, his five-year prison sentence was suspended for five years. 

According to the verdict, of which Farmani has not yet received a written copy, he must report to one of the local Ministry of Intelligence offices in Shiraz on a weekly basis until further notice. Security officials have also told Farmani that he cannot leave Iran, but he has not received any official written notification of this ruling.