Iranian football legend Ali Daei, who has vociferously supported the demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, declared on Monday that an aircraft bound for Dubai from Tehran had been rerouted and his relatives ordered to disembark.
Protests have gripped Iran since the Sept. 16 death of Iranian Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women. Tehran generally refers to the protests as "riots."
Daei, 53, a former German Bundesliga striker whose 109 goals at the 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 (UAE), ISNA news agency reported. But the plane was rerouted and made to land on Iran's Kish Island in the Gulf, where his family was deplaned, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Quoting the judiciary, IRNA said that "Daei's wife had pledged to inform relevant institutions of her decision before leaving the country," following their "association with groups against the Islamic Revolution and rioters and calling for strikes." The 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, according to an ISNA report. "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 this."
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 scheduled to return," 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 told Agence France-Presse (AFP) 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 protests.
Earlier in December, his jewelry shop and restaurant in Tehran's fashionable north were sealed, with local media reporting they had been ordered shut for "cooperation with anti-revolutionary groups in cyberspace to disrupt peace and business of the market."