Exiled Iranian Football Star Faces Renewed Threats

In the past two weeks, two senior Iranian government officials have issued explicit death and kidnapping threats against the exiled football legend Ali Karimi.

Karimi left Iran in the fall of 2022 after receiving multiple threats from the authorities.

During the 2022 uprising, the retired football player used his notoriety to defend the protesters who faced a bloody crackdown by security forces.

And following a deadly twin bombing in the Iranian city of Kerman earlier this month, Karimi criticized the Islamic Republic’s policy of offering food and drink at pro-government events.

"Go for free food and drink, but you will get a hard revenge," he wrote on the social media platform X.

In response, Reza Naqipour, head of the Office of Ceremonies at the Iranian presidential office and former chief of security at the football federation, wrote on his Instagram account on January 5: "One day you will return the way that we like, not the way you like." 

Naqipour used the hashtag #RouhollahZam, suggesting a fate similar to Ruhullah Zam, a journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2019 and forcibly returned to Iran where he was executed the following year.

Asked in a January 17 press conference about an ongoing investigation into Karimi’s activities, Vice President Mohammad Dehghan warned: "All individuals who have left the country remain Iranian nationals.”

“Any individual who takes actions against the national security of the country will face consequences. Relevant authorities will take timely measures in this regard," Dehghan added.

Naqipour attracted media attention in September 2023, when he assaulted and threatened a correspondent for the London-based Iran International news channel who was capturing footage of the Iranian delegation accompanying President Ebrahim Raisi in New York.

A video posted online showed the official telling the journalist, Kian Amani, “I really like that your hand is trembling. You’ll all be trembling like this for the rest of your life. All the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran must tremble…we are the main player in the region.”

Efforts to bring Karimi back to Iran have apparently been underway for some time.

In September 2022, the semi-official Fars News Agency shared a picture purporting to be an Interpol red notice for Karimi, which could not be verified.

In a subsequent interview, Karimi disclosed he had faced threats in the United Arab Emirates from the Iranian security authorities.