Iran forces plane carrying soccer legend's family to land
To many Iranians, the move revealed the lengths authorities were willing to go to in their crackdown on critics.
Iran's most acclaimed soccer icon, Ali Daei, expressed shock and disbelief after the intelligence apparatus forced a civilian aircraft carrying his family to return halfway through its journey, blocking their departure from the country.
The Dubai-bound flight was ordered to land on the southern Iranian Kish Island on Monday. Authorities allowed the journey's resumption only after removing Daei's wife and daughter, according to multiple state-linked media outlets.
The reports cited unnamed judiciary officials as saying that Daei's wife, Mona Farrokh-Azari, was banned over her solidarity with "riots," a reference to an anti-government protest movement that has rocked Iran since mid-September. More specifically, they noted that the soccer legend's wife had joined a three-day nationwide business strike earlier this month by closing her jewelry shop in the capital, Tehran. The Iranian judiciary had already sealed the shop as well as a restaurant linked to Daei over the civil disobedience campaign.
A widely popular figure in Iran, the outspoken Daei has been directing criticism toward the government repression in response to the unrest, which according to a leading rights monitor has left at least 507 people dead.
