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Intimidation, threatened family members, spying: This is also what Iranians in Switzerland experience when they make public political statements. The intelligence service assumes that Iran is increasing its espionage activities. Three victims tell.
Maryam Banihashemi has been electrified by the current protests in her home country of Iran. She is currently active on many channels: Instagram, rallies, interviews. Since the 39-year-old has been doing this, she has repeatedly received hate messages: “Some threatened to kill me. Others said they were after my father, who lives in Iran,” says Maryam.
At the rallies in various Swiss cities that Maryam helped organize, she repeatedly observed people taking photos and videos of the protesters. The fear: That the pictures will end up with the Iranian government.
Iran rallies in Switzerland
Baran is one who has seen what can happen. Baran is Iranian-Swiss and actually has a different name. He wants to remain anonymous because he is afraid of repression.
“If you’re on the list, you’re taken aside when entering Iran. You are either confronted directly with individual statements or with public statements,” says Baran. Sometimes you are asked to name other names, or it is pointed out that you are under surveillance. And in the worst case, people would also be arrested.
“They threaten our families in Iran”
Sasan Amjadi also knows the methods of intimidation. Sasan is Kurdish. A minority that is particularly persecuted in Iran. Although he fled to Switzerland 13 years ago, he still feels the long arm of the Iranian regime.
For example, when Sasan tweets a tweet critical of the government, two things happen: First, people close to the government and trolls on social media would discredit the content and label it untrue. And secondly, family members who still live in Iran would be threatened by government officials. “This is how they want to silence us,” says Sasan.
Iran’s secret services are stepping up their presence
The Iranian secret service is not likely to be directly behind all attempts at intimidation. But the Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) also assumes that Iran is acting as a spy in Switzerland. In this country, Iranian secret services “mainly aim to control their diaspora community and political opponents,” writes the FIS in its 2020 security report.
At the request of SRF Investigativ, the news service wrote that nothing had changed in this assessment: “However, the FIS has findings that indicate an intensification of Iran’s intelligence activities in Switzerland.” Cyber actors supported by Iran have also increased their cyber espionage activities in recent years.
Legend:
Iranian intelligence activities keep Europe busy: Police blockade in Denmark in 2018 in connection with an Iranian assassination plot.
Ritzau Scanpix/Nils Meilvang via REUTERS
Baran says that the attempted attacks on Iranian opposition figures in Europe are omnipresent: “You then have in your head: I could be kidnapped at any time, taken to the embassy premises in Bern and I would be on Iranian state territory. And nothing more could be done. This fear affects what you say and do. That’s how reign of terror works.”
The Iranian embassy did not comment on the allegations when asked by SRF.