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An Iranian football coach and former Bayern Munich player has been accused by Iranian authorities of being a threat to national security after they tried to seize his villa home to punish him for supporting protesters.
Ali Karimi, 43 – who played for Fath Tehran, Persepolis, Al-Ahli Dubai, Bayern Munich, Qatar SC, Steel Azin, Schalke 04, Tractor Sazi, and the Iran national team – is dubbed the Asian Maradona but he has now been charged in absentia with supporting ongoing anti-government protests.
Karimi, who retired as a player in 2013 and who is not currently in Iran has been charged by prosecutors in his home country with unlawful “assembly and collusion with the intention of acting against national security”, according to the London-based news organisation Iran International and other independent Iranian media outlets.
Karimi was one of the first public figures to condemn the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, which has sparked widespread protests all over the country and caused the Iranian authorities to shut down most of the Internet there.
Iran International has said that it has obtained a copy of a court document showing that Karimi has been charged.
Iranian prosecutors had temporarily seized the villa of the football star last week after he called on the army to side with the protesters.
The Lavasanat prosecutor’s office in north-eastern Tehran “surrounded” and “sealed” Ali Karimi’s private villa, and installed a notice and cement blocks in front of it, according to a number of media reports.
The move came after the Iranian football coach and former Bayern Munich player, 43, called on the Iranian army to side with the protesters.
The cement blocks and notices were reportedly removed from in front of the villa a few hours later, although it is unclear by whom, after he had reportedly sold it before they acted.
Protests erupted in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Mahsa, 22, was declared brain dead and died in hospital three days after apparently being beaten by Iran’s morality police.
She had been detained for what was described as a ‘re-education class’ after she was arrested next to a metro station in Tehran for failing to adhere to Iran’s strict hijab rules on 13th September.
Hours later she was in hospital with a skull fracture “caused by a direct blow” and internal bleeding, according to hacked CT scans obtained by a London-based news organisation known as Iran International.
Doctors went on to say that Mahsa had blood and fluid in her lungs because she went into a coma soon after receiving a blow to the head, according to the news organisation.
United States National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, wrote in a tweet that Iranian authorities should be held accountable for human rights violations.
Tehran officials reportedly at first said that Mahsa died of a heart attack and went on to say that she suffered from epilepsy, a claim that her father has denied.
All women, including tourists, have had to wear a headscarf in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Mahsa’s death caused outrage around the world and sparked protests in Iran, with the country shutting down parts of the internet in a bid to disrupt the growing protest movement.
A growing list of celebrities have voiced their support for the protests and for Mahsa.
They include former First Lady of the United States and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, British Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner, American model Bella Hadid, Hollywood icon Sharon Stone, pop star Justin Bieber, Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, Kim Kardashian, Turkish singer Melek Mosso, Penelope Cruz, Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, actress Eva Mendes, and the British Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, among others.
(T4/ends)
