Iran: The football legend of Iran Mr. Ali Daei has stated that an international flight has been rerouted to prevent his wife and daughter from leaving the country.
The 53-year-old, who supports anti-government protests in Iran, claimed that his family’s flight from Tehran to Dubai to join him on vacation was forced to land on Kish island in the Gulf and they were removed.
Mr. Daei shared that “they were going to Dubai for a few days and then back. If they had been barred from leaving, the passport police system should have indicated it. No one has given me an answer about this.”
The football player had his passport briefly confiscated after returning home earlier in 2022. Earlier, the former team captain had urged the government on the social media to “solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence and arrests.”
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 also reported Mahan Air Flight W563 as being diverted to the Iranian Island before flying to Dubai.
Mr. Ali Daei is one of Iran’s most renowned sports figures. A former captain of the national football team, he has scored 109 goals at international level in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mr. Daei is one of several Iranian public figures to back recent protests against the Islamic theocracy.
Iranian authorities have banned several celebrities, artists, and other prominent figures from leaving the country following their support for the mass protests.
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