Iran intelligence docs reveal travel ban on footballer Ali Karimi

Amid uproar against the crackdown on the protests that erupted in September last year, Iran imposed a ban on Iranian star footballer Ali Karimi, reported BBC.

The Iranian football coach was among the numerous celebrities who castigated Tehran for the deadly crackdown on the protestors that were in support of Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish-Iranian woman, who died in police custody. She was allegedly beaten by the morality police of Iran. She was detained for not wearing her headscarf appropriately.

The Maradona of Asia, Karimi was living in UAE at that time.

The demonstrations spread throughout the country where 530 protestors were killed according to human rights groups.

The document in which the travel ban on Karimi is mentioned noted: Karimi was invited [to Iran] by our agent nine times and has received serious warnings.”

The letter dated October 22, 2022, marking top secret on it said: Iran's Revolutionary Guard's intelligence unit informed Tehran's prosecutor that Karimi's recent activities were instigated by his wife Sahar Davari and her family".

In the late 1980s, the Iranian government executed the father of Davari, Gholamali Davari, for being a member of the Communist Tudeh Party. At that time, her father was in the Iranian airforce.

According to the documents, 44-year-old Karimi's in-laws were aiming to sell his mansion in Lavasan, on his behalf, an affluent suburb of the capital Tehran, for $20m [18m euros; £16m] in order to emigrate permanently.

As per the leaked intelligence documents, Revolutionary Guard asked to impose a travel ban on the footballer, Davari, her mother, step-father, brother and sister.

The ban would bar them from leaving Iran if they returned to their country.

While speaking with BBC Persian he said his older brother was also prosecuted several times and banned from leaving the country.

He said: "My friend was interrogated three or four times in the notorious Evin prison," adding that Iran keeps people he follows on Instagram under close surveillance.

He also stated that "one of them needed both a deposit bail and a guarantor to be able to leave Iran."

Iranian state media claimed that Karimi had sold his lavasan mansion however, he denied the claim.

He went on to state that "security forces raided the place and brutally beat up the janitor," while further noting that “the property had been empty ever since.”

"My neighbours tell me lights are on some nights and plain-clothes agents are seen going in and out," he added.

Several pictures of CCTV cameras were also shared by Karimi that authorities have installed on his property.

"Any car stops there for five minutes, and security forces swarm the place," Ali Karimi noted.

Since then, the footballer has moved to an undisclosed location in UAE.