When traveling to Iran
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns against investigation
1/1/2023 7:17 am
More than 200,000 people with Iranian roots live in Germany. Many of them are critical of the regime in Tehran. That’s why they should be particularly careful when dealing with Iran, warns President Haldenwang for the protection of the constitution.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns people with Iranian roots who are critical of the regime to exercise caution if they intend to travel to Iran or still have relatives there. Among the more than 200,000 people with an Iranian migration background who live in Germany, there are many people “who have a critical attitude towards the regime there,” said the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, the German Press Agency.
For several years it has been evident that members of Iranian government agencies have an “interest in researching” these people. “These people will be identified and will have to face serious consequences if they travel to Iran,” Haldenwang warned. If there are still relatives or friends in Iran, the repression could also be directed against such people from the immediate environment. “Something like this has already happened, and right now in the current situation, in which massive protests are taking place in Iran, we are seeing the same thing in Germany.”
Caution should also be exercised in connection with social media activities, the head of the domestic intelligence service added. At the large solidarity demonstration with 80,000 participants in Berlin in October, for example, the security authorities noticed that Iranian services were interested in finding out the identity of those involved. “It was photographed, it was filmed,” said Haldenwang. However, it is also the case that the participants in such demonstrations often filmed and photographed each other and then shared these pictures on social networks. “Of course, that makes it easier for the Iranian services to carry out identification.”
The trigger for the nationwide protests in Iran was the death of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16 in police custody. The Kurdish woman had been arrested by the so-called vice police for violating the Islamic dress code in force in Iran. Since then there have been repeated protests against the government’s repressive course and the Islamic system of rule.