Human rights activist at risk of deportation to Iran

An Iranian human rights activist was arrested in Turkey on Thursday and authorities are threatening to return him to his native country, Newsmax reported the same day.

The activist, Dr. Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, was seized by authorities when he arrived at Istanbul’s international airport on a flight from Germany, where he is a legal resident. An Iranian intelligence officer arrived at the scene and demanded that the Turks extradite him to Iran.

Dr Ebrahimi fled Iran in 2003. He had already been jailed for nearly two years for disobeying orders to attack protesting students at Tehran University in July 1999. Instead, with the help of Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, he made a film of on-camera “confessions” exposing the activities of the secret unit of the Revolutionary Guards, of which he had previously been a member.

Pooya Dayanim, an Iranian activist based in Los Angeles, said he has “no doubt” that Ebrahimi “will surely be tortured and killed” if the Turks send him back to Iran.

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