Canadian Resident Arrested in Iran

For quite some time, it was unknown that the Iranian authorities had arrested, and placed in solitary confinement, well-known television producer and writer, Mostafa Azizi. For an entire month, security agents kept him in Cell Block 2A of Tehran’s Evin Prison – a section run by the Revolutionary Guards – where he was harshly interrogated and harassed before he was transferred to communal Ward 8. It was at this point that news of his detention got out.

“We didn’t report it because his family in Tehran asked us not to,” his son Arash Azizi told IranWire. Arash is a reporter for TV Manoto, a London-based Persian-language news outlet.

After Azizi was moved to a communal ward on March 28, news agencies confirmed his detainment. “The Iranian authorities arrested Mostafa Azizi, who has permanent resident status in Canada, on February 1, and charged him with insulting Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and spreading propaganda against the Islamic establishment,” Reuters reported.

Azizi’s professional career began in 1986 when he worked for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) radio service as a writer and editor of scientific and educational programs. After this, he moved to television where he set up an animation unit. Then, in 1994, he started his own private production company, which produced a number of popular television series and programs that were broadcast by IRIB for the next six years.

In 2010, Azizi moved to Canada. “When I was turning 20 I wanted to immigrate,” he said in an interview with Iranian poet Sepideh Jodeyri for the Persian-language Canadian website Shahrgan in March 2012. “As a teenager I took part in the revolution for a better life and then I saw that all those dreams were fading and bursting like bubbles. A fresh dictatorship was merely replacing the old one.”

“Immigration might be meaningful when you’re young but it’s ridiculous when you’re middle-aged,” he said. “I didn’t immigrate. Rather, I’m living like an exile. I’ve done a few small things here and there but I couldn’t call it my ‘new life.’ Mostly I’m here physically but my soul is wandering around Iran.”

In January 2015, Azizi travelled back to Iran to visit his family and consider the possibility of returning home. However just a month after his arrival, the Revolutionary Guards arrested him. His case is currently being processed by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Abolghasem Salavati. The European Union has sanctioned Salavati, while human rights organizations have accused him of serious rights violations.

“Azizi didn’t want and doesn’t want to remain an exiled Iranian,” writer and translator Siamand Zandi told IranWire. Zandi, who also lives in Canada, set up a “Free Mostafa Azizi” Facebook page.

He wanted to return

“Mostafa wrote whatever was in his heart, without equivocation,” Zandi said of Azizi’s motives for returning to Iran. “He would say that he didn’t think like us and that he loved Iran. He didn’t want to remain a drifting Iranian and so grabbed the first chance he got to exercise his basic right of returning to his country.”

His son Arash told Iranwire the same thing. “My father returned to Iran because he loved his country and he wanted to work there and be near to his family, especially since his father was old and ill,” said Arash. “He expected there might have been consequences for his return but he didn’t think he’d committed an offense. We’re still hoping he’ll be allowed to go back to his normal life once the judicial process is over.”

Human rights lawyer Hossein Raeesi explains that arresting Azizi violates his rights as a citizen. “Azizi was a cultural figure who was very fair and loved Iranian culture. He never exaggerated the bad or covered up the good.”

According to Raeesi, Azizi was a sociable person with a good sense of humor, which made him very popular among young Iranians in Canada. “He also founded the Iranian Cultural Center in Toronto and organized classes to promote Iranian culture.”

As a legal resident in Canada, Azizi was not a political refugee. “It was his right to return to Iran and there is no doubt that he was aware of the risks,” Raeesi says. “But it’s the government that must respect the decision of its citizens. It’s not his decision to return that should be criticized but rather how cultural figures like Azizi are treated by the security establishment.”

He adds, “The judiciary and security agencies disregard the government’s obligations to its citizens. This shows that the relationship between the citizen and the regime is one in which the former is tyrannized by the latter.”