All Artists Banned from Leaving the Country
All Artists Banned from Leaving the Country: A legal expert in the media field recently reported that a large number of artistic figures have been banned from leaving the country. There is a system for checking travel bans where individuals can find out their status by entering their national ID number. However, what has happened is that even with a positive check, people have been banned from leaving the country.
The head of the Civil Registration Organization stated that many travel bans are not listed in the ‘My Registration’ system, and if individuals are banned solely based on executive cases, they will be informed in this system. Those banned for reasons like tax debt or judicial orders should refer to the ‘My Police’ system. However, it seems that even individuals may be banned from leaving the country, yet their checks in both systems come back positive. An example of this is Bahram Radan.
Radan shared a story on his Instagram saying that on Friday, November 4, 2022, when he was at the airport for a short trip abroad, he was handed a paper by two young men in their 20s, without showing any identification or judicial order, stating that he was not allowed to leave the country and needed to visit one of the institutions to resolve his issue.
Radan further mentions that there is a system called ‘Sana’ where you can check if you are banned from leaving the country or not. He says that after this incident, he visited this system and found out that no travel ban was registered for him. After Radan’s story, Mohseni Ejei, the head of the judiciary, stated that travel bans should not be such that individuals find out about them only upon arriving at the airport. Despite all the warnings he had given, there are still problems and issues within the judiciary that need to be resolved.
Several Famous Figures Banned from Leaving the Country
There are no statistics on the number of athletes or artists banned from leaving the country. It is not even clear how many of them have had their issues definitively resolved and face no obstacles in leaving the country. What has been revealed so far is based on their own announcements. Maryam Bobani, an actress who unveiled after Mahsa Amini’s death, Hamid Farrokhnejad, and Mohammad Barhani, the voice actor of Jenab Khan, are among those who have publicized their travel bans.
Bobani wrote: ‘I stayed in Khuzestan during the hardest days of war under shelling and missiles and did not leave my homeland. I am not leaving this country.’ Mohammad Mousavi, the captain of the national volleyball team, who has played in European teams for several years, also announced his travel ban in an Instagram story. Barhani, who withdrew from participating in Nasim Network’s special World Cup program, sarcastically commented on his travel ban, saying it doesn’t matter at all.
Ali Zia, Ali Daei, Homayoun Shajarian and his wife Sahar Dolatshahi, Mani Haghighi, and Hedieh Tehrani are other figures whose passports were either confiscated or who were banned from leaving the country. The granddaughter of Ebrahim Golestan and the child of Lili Golestan was heading to the UK on October 13 to attend the London Film Festival when her passport was seized at the airport.
Hamid Farrokhnejad also mentioned that he was summoned twice, interrogated for ten hours, and banned from leaving the country just to prove to him that he was wrong to say that even a peaceful protest is not allowed. Mitra Ebrahimi, the wife of Peyman Ghasemkhani, also reported in an Instagram story on October 11 that her husband was banned from leaving the country following the seizure of his passport at Imam Khomeini Airport.
Ali Zia also wrote in an Instagram post: ‘Sorry if some of you got worried, nothing special happened. They decided that I couldn’t leave the country. This has happened to many artists as well. The country is home for all of us, but if you lock the door on us, you’ll feel something strange.’ Unofficial news about the travel bans of Mehran Modiri and Shahab Hosseini was also released, which was never officially confirmed by them.
Among these figures, Ali Daei told the French news agency after a few days that his passport was returned to him. There is no information on whether his travel ban issue was resolved. Homayoun Shajarian also announced at the time that contradictory news was published regarding their confiscated passports. The truth is that Sahar Dolatshahi and I have not yet received our passports and are still banned from leaving the country. However, on October 10, the Deputy Minister of Interior Security announced that Homayoun Shajarian’s passport would be returned to him and there is no issue in this regard. The Tasnim news agency also announced that Shajarian has no travel restrictions.
The Travel Ban Law and the Judge’s Discretion
Travel bans are among the judicial supervision orders that complement the order of securing or supplementary punishment, which the judicial authority can use to prevent the accused from leaving the country. Also, travel bans are only valid for up to six months and are considered null and void after that. However, the judge can extend this order if necessary.
According to Article 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code, five groups of individuals are banned from leaving the country and are not allowed to exit.
1. Definite tax debtors and debtors whose debts have been confirmed by a final court ruling or execution of a writ in the registration organization. 2. Individuals who have a bad reputation abroad due to begging, vagrancy, theft, fraud, or any other reason. 3. Individuals whose travel abroad is deemed against the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran by judicial authorities. 4. Those who have been given a written notice by judicial authorities that they do not have the right to leave the country. 5. Those whose passport issuance and departure from the country is subject to the will of another person, such as a father or husband.
It seems that the legislator has acted so liberally in writing this law that it is easy to ban anyone from leaving the country, especially citing clause 3 of this law. Another problem with the law is that it remains silent on the form, manner, and timing of an individual’s travel ban and does not oblige the judge or court to inform the individual in writing by the judge’s order. The fact that individuals are told to check the relevant system to find out about their travel ban suggests that the default assumption is that everyone is banned from leaving the country unless proven otherwise.
Another article on this subject titled ‘Continuation of Nationwide Protests in Iran, Increase in Arrests and Intimidation’ has been published.