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Iran's national soccer icon Ali Daei as coach at an international match in 2009
Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian/AP
The Iranian state has apparently diverted a passenger plane and prevented the family of ex-soccer star Ali Daei from leaving the country.
This is reported by the Associated Press news agency.
Daei, Iran's record capper and former national coach, is one of the most prominent supporters of the protest movement in Iran.
As can be seen on the Flightradar24.com website, Mahan Air flight W563 on its way from Tehran to Dubai made an unscheduled stopover on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf on Monday.
According to Daei, his wife and daughter were questioned by the authorities there and then released, but not allowed back on the plane.
Daei himself had not made the flight.
Neither the airline nor the Iranian regime issued a statement.
It is not the first time that his commitment has had consequences for the former Bayern professional or those around him: in October, the Iranian authorities briefly confiscated Daei's passport, and in early December Daei's shops were sealed after participating in a general strike.
In Iran, the death in September of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the Morality Police in Tehran for violating the Islamic Republic's strict dress code, triggered the largest wave of protests against the regime in decades.
This continues to this day, despite violent repression against opponents of the regime.
cev/ap
