Former Iranian football star Ali Daei said his wife and daughter were prevented from leaving Iran after their plane made an unannounced stop Monday on its way to Dubai.
Daei said his family was questioned by authorities after the flight from Tehran landed on Iran’s Kish island.
The state-run IRAN news agency cited Iran’s judiciary saying Daei’s wife had been banned from traveling abroad and that she was associated with anti-government groups and protesters.
Daei is a former captain of Iran’s national team. He has urged the government on social media to “solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence and arrests.”
“Did they want to arrest a terrorist? My wife and daughter were going to Dubai for a few days trip and back,” he told the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency, or ISNA.
Daei’s passport was confiscated in October before being returned to him days later. And earlier this month, authorities shut down a jewelry shop and restaurant he owned in Tehran.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
