A distinguished former soccer participant in Iran who has expressed help for anti-government protests says his spouse and daughter have been prevented from leaving the nation on Monday after their aircraft made an unannounced stopover en path to Dubai.
Ali Daei, who had his personal passport briefly confiscated after returning to the nation earlier this yr, stated his spouse and daughter departed from the capital, Tehran, legally earlier than the flight made an unannounced cease on Kish Island within the Persian Gulf, the place they have been questioned by authorities.
He stated his daughter was launched however the doorways to the flight have been closed by then. He stated his household had deliberate to journey to Dubai and return subsequent week.
The flight-tracking web site Flightradar24 confirmed Mahan Air Flight W563 being diverted to Kish Island earlier than touring onward to Dubai a pair hours later.
There was no remark from the airline or Iranian authorities.
The semiofficial Tasnim information company, believed to be near the Revolutionary Guard, stated a journey ban was imposed on Daei’s spouse earlier this month due to her help for the protests. It stated she tried to illegally bypass the ban, with out elaborating, and that her closing vacation spot was the U.S. The studies didn’t identify his spouse or daughter, who will not be public figures.
Daei is one in every of a number of Iranian celebrities who’ve come out in help of the protests ignited by the dying of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September. The Kurdish lady died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the nation’s strict costume code.
The protests quickly unfold throughout the nation and escalated into requires the overthrow of the theocracy established after the 1979 revolution, making it one of many greatest challenges to clerical rule in over 4 many years.
A minimum of 507 protesters have been killed and greater than 18,500 individuals have been arrested, based on Human Rights Activists in Iran, a bunch that has carefully monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities haven’t launched figures for these killed or arrested.
Earlier than his passport was confiscated, Daei, a high worldwide purpose scorer and former Iranian workforce captain, had urged the federal government on social media to “clear up the issues of the Iranian individuals moderately than utilizing repression, violence and arrests.” He later stated it was returned to him.
The leaderless protesters, rallying below the slogan “ladies, life, freedom,” say they’re fed up after many years of social and political repression by a clerical institution they view as corrupt and out of contact. Iranian authorities have blamed the unrest on international adversaries just like the U.S. and Israel.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard stated in an announcement Sunday that it had arrested seven people within the southeastern metropolis of Kerman with a “direct hyperlink” to Britain who have been concerned within the protests. It stated some members of the community had twin nationality, with out elaborating.
Iran has arrested plenty of Iranians with twin nationality in recent times and convicted them of state safety offenses in closed-door trials. Rights teams say such detainees are denied due course of and accuse Iran of utilizing them as bargaining chips with the West, one thing Iranian officers deny.