Protest-backing soccer star’s family kept from leaving Iran

A prominent former Iranian soccer player who has expressed support for anti-government protests said his wife and daughter were barred from leaving the country on Monday after their flight to Dubai made an unannounced stop.

Ali Daei, who had his own passport confiscated shortly after returning to the country earlier this year, said his wife and daughter left the capital, Tehran, legally before the plane made an unannounced stop on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. questioned by the authorities.

She said her daughter was released but the plane door was closed. He said his family had planned to go to Dubai and return next week.

Flight tracking website Flightradar24 showed Mahan Air Flight W563 diverted to Kish Island before traveling to Dubai a few hours later.

There was no comment from the airline or Iranian authorities.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, said a travel ban was imposed on Daei’s wife earlier this month because she supported the protests. He said he was trying to break the ban illegally, without elaborating, and that his ultimate goal was the U.S. The report did not name his wife or daughter, who are not public figures.

The protests quickly spread across the country and escalated into calls to overthrow the theocracy established after the 1979 revolution, becoming one of the biggest challenges to clerical rule in four decades.

At least 507 protesters have been killed and more than 18,500 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the unrest. Iranian authorities have not released figures for those killed or imprisoned.

Before his passport was confiscated, Daei, the top international scorer and former captain of the Iranian national team, had called on the government on social media to “solve the problems of the Iranian people instead of using repression, violence and arrests.” He then said it had come back to him.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards said in a statement Sunday that they had arrested seven people in the southeastern city of Kerman with “direct links” to Britain who were involved in the protests. It said some members of the network have dual citizenship, without elaborating.

Iran has arrested several Iranians with dual citizenship in recent years and accused them of violating state security in closed trials. Human rights groups say the detainees have been denied due process and accuse Iran of using them as bargaining chips with the West, which Iranian officials deny.