TEHRAN: Iranian football legend Ali Daei, who has backed protests following Mahsa Amini’s death, said on Monday an airplane from Tehran to Dubai had been rerouted and his family ordered off. Daei, 53, a former German Bundesliga striker whose 109 goals at international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him, is one of Iran’s most famous footballers.

Daei said his wife and daughter had flown on a Mahan Air flight, taking off from the capital Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, headed to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, ISNA news agency reported. But the plane was rerouted and made to land on Iran’s Kish island in the Gulf, where his family removed, the state news agency IRNA said.

Quoting the judiciary, IRNA said that “Daei’s wife had pledged to inform the relevant institutions of her decision before leaving the country”, following their “association with the groups against the Islamic revolution and rioters and calling for strikes”.

The IRNA report added that “the flight landed at Kish airport and Ali Daei’s wife and daughter got off the plane”.

‘Taken off’

The former Bayern Munich player, who played in Iran’s 2-1 World Cup victory against the United States in 1998, has said he has been targeted by threats after backing the protests triggered by the death of Amini.

“My daughter and wife were taken off the flight, but they were not arrested”, Daei said, ISNA reported.

“Had they been banned (from leaving), the passport police system should have shown it: no one has given me an answer about this. I really don’t know what is the reason for these things”. Daei said he was trying to arrange his family’s return to Tehran. “Did they want to arrest a terrorist? My wife and daughter were going to Dubai for a few days trip and back”, he added. Daei on Sept 27 used social media to call on the government to “solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence and arrests”.

In October, Daei said his passport was confiscated by police upon his return from abroad, before being returned to him a few days later. He said he had not gone to the World Cup in Qatar due to the Iranian authorities’ crackdown on the protests.

Two hanged

Iranian authorities have hanged two men convicted of murder in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province in the latest executions carried out by the Islamic republic, the judiciary said on Monday.

Elias Raisi was found guilty of murder in a family dispute in 2020, and Ayoub Rigi of a killing using a military weapon over “personal differences” with the victim, said the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website.

They were put to death on Saturday after the victims’ families refused to grant them clemency under Islamic law, the chief prosecutor in the provincial capital Zahedan, Mehdi Shamsabadi, was quoted as saying.Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2022