Former Iranian football star Ali Daei said he was prevented from leaving Iran after his wife and daughter’s plane stopped without notice on Monday en route to Dubai.
Daei said his family was questioned by authorities after the plane from Tehran landed on Iran’s Kish island.
The state-run Iranian News Agency quoted Iran’s judicial authorities as saying that Daei’s wife has been banned from traveling abroad and has ties to rebel groups and protesters.
Daei is the former captain of the Iran national team. On social media, he urged the government to “solve the problems of the Iranian people instead of repression, violence and arrests.”
“Did they want to arrest terrorists? My wife and daughter went on a trip of several days to Dubai and back,” he told the semi-official Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA).
Daei’s passport was confiscated in October and returned days later. And earlier this month, authorities closed a jewelry store and restaurant he owned in Tehran.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.