A US-Iranian dual citizen has been detained in Iran and is facing multiple security-related charges, according to her son, who says authorities are using his mother to pressure him.
Germany-based political activist Reza Zarrabi told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda on November 19 that his 70-year-old mother, Afarin Mohajer, was arrested on September 29 at Imam Khomeini International Airport as she was leaving the country after a visit.
He said intelligence officers with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) detained Mohajer, who is being kept in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
Mohajer, who resides in Los Angeles, has an inoperable brain tumor and has been told by “a doctor before going to prison that she does not have long to live,” Zarrabi said.
She had traveled to Iran to handle her husband’s personal affairs following his death, he added.
Zarrabi said he learned about his mother’s charges through a lawyer who typically handles political cases.
He listed the charges as: forming a dissident group, membership in dissident groups, propaganda against the establishment, insulting the supreme leader, and insulting sacred values.
Zarrabi introduces himself as “director of the Overthrow Council,” an opposition group that seeks to topple the Islamic republic. Little is know of the group, one of many based abroad that have called for a mass uprising against Iran’s leadership.
He emphasized that while his mother was always by his side, she was not a member of the council. He stressed that his mother had no political activity and argued that “they arrested her and are putting pressure on her because of my political activities.”
Zarrabi alleged Mohajer has been put “under pressure and torture” to force him to cease his political activities and shut down the council he leads.
“But I vow that I will not close this council, and given that it has its own independent life, I don’t have the right to shut down a political institution,” he told Radio Farda.
Neither US or Iranian authorities have confirmed the detention of Mohajer.
Zarrabi said he has written the US State Department to inform them of his mother’s detention, which he says was confirmed through a phone call with her on her 43rd day behind bars. He has not heard back from the US government, he noted.
The US government has repeatedly warned about American citizens traveling to Iran, with whom Washington has no diplomatic relations.
Numerous Iranians holding dual citizenship have been arrested by security agencies on various criminal charges. Many have had their properties confiscated or frozen, and in some cases their family members inside Iran have faced pressure aimed at forcing these individuals to return to the country.
Iran stands accused of using the illegal arrest and detention of foreign nationals, including dual citizens, as “hostage diplomacy” to pressure foreign governments into meeting its demands.
According to Human Rights Watch, Iranian authorities have “systematically” violated detainees’ due process rights through politically motivated arrests. The Iranian government refuses to recognize dual nationality and treats dual citizens solely as Iranian nationals.
