Iran reroutes flight, orders football legend Ali Daei’s family to disembark

(File) In this file photo taken on April 1, 2022, former Iranian footballer Ali Daei (right) arrives on stage at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center during the draw for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. . (Photo by Gabriel Buis/AFP)

Iranian football legend Ali Daei has backed protests following the death of Masa Amini, with his family taking off on Monday after a flight from Tehran to Dubai was rerouted. said.

Protests have dominated Iran since Amini, 22, an Iranian-Kurdish man, died on September 16 after being arrested in Tehran for violating a strict dress code for women. Tehran commonly refers to protests as “riots.”

The 53-year-old former German Bundesliga striker, who didn’t score 109 goals at international level until Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed him, is one of Iran’s most famous footballers.

Daei said his wife and daughter took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport and boarded a Mahan Air flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, ISNA news agency reported.

But the plane was rerouted and landed on Iran’s Kish Island in the Gulf, where his family left, state news agency IRNA said.

Citing the judiciary, IRNA said, “Daei’s wife undertook to inform the relevant authorities of her decision before leaving the country,” adding, “We oppose the Islamic revolution and riots and call for strikes.” Relations with the Group”.

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

‘take off’

A former Bayern Munich player who played in Iran’s 2-1 World Cup victory over the United States in 1998 says he was targeted with threats after supporting protests sparked by Amini’s death.

“My daughter and wife were removed from the plane but not arrested,” Daei said, ISNA reported.

“If they were banned[from leaving the country]the passport police system should have indicated that. not.”

Daei said he was trying to arrange his family’s return to Tehran.

“Did they want to arrest terrorists? My wife and daughter were traveling back and forth to Dubai for a few days,” he added.

Daei used social media on September 27 to call on the government to “solve the problems of the Iranian people instead of using repression, violence and arrests.”

In October, Daeh told AFP that his passport had been confiscated by the police when he returned from abroad and returned days later.

He said he had not been to the World Cup in Qatar because of Iranian authorities’ crackdown on protests.

In early December, his jewelry store and restaurant in Tehran’s fashionable north were put on lockdown and local media closed for “collaborating with counter-revolutionary groups in cyberspace to disrupt market peace and business.” It was reported that he was ordered to