Iranian Journalist in Danger of Deportation from Turkey

An award-winning Iranian investigative journalist has been arrested by Turkish border police on attempting to flee the country.

Mohammad Mosaed, who was honored in the Committee to Protect Journalism’s annual International Press Freedom Awards last year, contacted the CPJ yesterday to say he had been detained after crossing into Turkey via the eastern border city of Van.

Writing on a messaging app, Mosaed said the Turkish police had taken him to Ozalp Devlet Hastanesi hospital for medical treatment, and had told him he would soon be handed back to Iranian border control.

The development has sparked panic among freedom of expression advocates who fear for Mosaed’s safety if he is returned to Iran. Last August, the veteran journalist was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison on charges of “colluding against national security” and “propaganda against the regime”.

The heavy-handed sentence was based on Mosaed having tweeted during a nationwide internet shutdown in November 2019. He later publicly questioned the government’s official Covid-19 figures.

Mosaed told the CPJ he had been trying to flee the country on being summoned by authorities to begin serving his jail sentence. The CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa co-ordinator, Sherif Mansour, said in a statement: “We believe Mohammad Mosaed has a well-founded fear of persecution should he be returned to Iran.

“We urge Turkish authorities to respect their obligations under international law, to refrain from deporting Mosaed, to consider any request for political asylum that Mosaed may make and to assure his rights are protected through due process of law.”

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