CAIRO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran\u2019s government is detaining family members and threatening to seize property of Iranian opposition figures in exile, some told the Associated Press, in the latest crackdown on dissenting voices as the war rages on.<\/p>\n
Activists overseas play a key role in tracking the crackdown, which is complicated by the ongoing internet shutdown imposed early this year during massive nationwide protests against the Islamic theocracy. The crackdown left thousands of people dead, even by the government\u2019s estimate, and activist groups say the toll may be as high as 30,000.<\/p>\n
The war with the United States and Israel has intensified authorities\u2019 threats against anyone speaking to outside media or activists. Now that pressure appears to be expanding to intimidate activists in exile.<\/p>\n
Iran \u2018took my mother away to make me be quiet\u2019<\/p>\n
Intelligence agents in Tehran on March 15 detained the brother of Hossein Razzagh, a former political prisoner who fled last year to Europe, Razzagh told the AP.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy own brother isn\u2019t at all political and doesn\u2019t do any kind of political activity. It\u2019s to put me under pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ali Razzagh was taken from his home in Tehran and was able to phone his wife that night \u201cfor a few seconds\u201d from a detention center run by Iran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence, his brother said.<\/p>\n
Since then, the family and his lawyer have been unable to contact him. But the ministry told them it was reviewing his contact with his brother, Hossein Razzagh said.<\/p>\n
Another activist who fled, Behnam Chegini, said his 20-year-old niece was detained on March 10 for a week. She was taken from her parents\u2019 house in Arak soon after she returned from Tehran, where her university had closed because of the war.<\/p>\n
She was later released on bail and put under a travel ban.<\/p>\n
Chegini, who is now living in France, said the detention was at least in part \u201cbecause she is my niece and they know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sareh Sedighi, an activist who fled after her 2021 death sentence was overturned, said her mother was detained from her home last month in the western town of Urmia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Islamic Republic took my mother away to make me be quiet,\u201d she said. Her mother suffers from health problems and requires daily insulin doses, she added.<\/p>\n
And Mahshid Nazemi, a former political prisoner and activist who now lives in France, said at least one friend was detained and questioned about contact with her.<\/p>\n
Targeting property<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s judiciary has begun seizing the property of public figures critical of the country\u2019s rulers, under an anti-espionage law approved during last year\u2019s 12-day war with Israel that punishes media and cultural activities deemed to support Iran\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n
A judiciary spokesman said on state TV on March 31 that more than 200 indictments for confiscations have been or are being issued.<\/p>\n
Borzou Arjmand, an Iranian actor living in California, found out from news reports that his assets in Iran had been confiscated. After his outspoken support for protests in 2022, Arjmand was unable to return to Iran. Since then, authorities have blocked his bank accounts.<\/p>\n
Arjmand has expressed support on social media for Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran\u2019s last shah who has organized an opposition movement abroad and supports the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n
Pressuring exiled figures is meant \u201cso the Iranian people\u2019s voice doesn\u2019t reach the world,\u201d Arjmand said. <\/p>\n
At least three other figures living outside Iran \u2014 star soccer player Sardar Azmoun, musician Mohsen Yeganeh and university professor Ali Sharifi-Zarchi \u2014 have been on lists of confiscations, according to two semi-official news agencies in Iran. Yeganeh and Sharifi-Zarchi have expressed support on social media for anti-government protesters.<\/p>\n
Conditions are worsening, rights groups say<\/p>\n
Iranian security and judicial officials have warned that any new anti-government protests will be met with lethal force.<\/p>\n
State media regularly report arrests around the country, describing critics as \u201cmercenaries\u201d or \u201cagents\u201d of Israel and the United States, \u201croyalist thugs\u201d or \u201ctraitorous elements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports have alleged that some sent information to \u201chostile networks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group, has tracked several hundred detentions since the war began on Feb. 28, using its networks in the country and state media reports, said its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. He said the complete number is probably far higher.<\/p>\n
Among those detained is human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, taken by intelligence agents from her house in Tehran, said her daughter, Mehraveh Khandan, who lives in Amsterdam. The 64-year-old Sotoudeh had been out on bail for health reasons following an earlier detention.<\/p>\n
Little is known about how trials are functioning, as Israeli airstrikes have targeted buildings connected to the judicial system. \u201cIt\u2019s like they are half-closed. A lot of judges are staying home,\u201d said Musa Barzin, a lawyer with Dadban, a group of rights lawyers based abroad.<\/p>\n
Some report deteriorating conditions inside crowded prisons. Speaking from Tehran, the wife of a political prisoner held at Iran\u2019s Evin Prison worried it could be bombed, as it was during last year\u2019s war.<\/p>\n
\u201cExplosions and smoke can be heard and seen from everywhere in the city. Every time we hear a sound, we get scared,\u201d she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for her family\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
Organizing abroad<\/p>\n
The situation has led to new attempts to organize the highly fragmented Iranian opposition abroad.<\/p>\n
Shortly before the war, Razzagh and others began planning an opposition conference in London, the Iran Freedom Congress, to bring together pro-democracy groups. Razzagh represented a group of Iran-based opposition figures, including Soutoudeh, and imprisoned Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi.<\/p>\n
He called the conference a first step toward forming a coalition to push for a \u201cpolitical transition\u201d in Iran.<\/p>\n
For decades, Iran\u2019s rulers have quashed organized political opposition. Some activists in the diaspora say the war is escalating that pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael and America are saying, \u2018Well, if the Islamic Republic doesn\u2019t kill you, let us bomb you.\u2019 They\u2019ve been taken hostage from both sides,\u201d the activist Nazemi said of Iranians back home.<\/p>\n
Radjy writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAIRO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran\u2019s government is detaining family members and threatening to seize property of Iranian opposition figures in exile, some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[8685,112280,11418,7363,84181,112282,19378,340,48,52,51,47,50,49,112281,112284,112283,112279,34127,2664,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-253045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-activist","9":"tag-borzou-arjmand","10":"tag-brother","11":"tag-country","12":"tag-detention-center","13":"tag-intelligence-agent","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-news-report","23":"tag-norway-based-group","24":"tag-outspoken-support","25":"tag-razzagh","26":"tag-tehran","27":"tag-war","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}