September 06, 2019
An Iranian reporter traveling in Europe with the foreign minister has defected, Swedish officials announced and the journalist has confirmed.
The Swedish Migration Agency said Amir-Tohid Fazel, a political reporter for Iran’s ultra-conservative Moj news agency, had “applied for a residence permit in Sweden on August 21, 2019.”
Fazel was traveling with Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif’s delegation as part of an international tour to Scandinavia, which then went on, without Fazel, to the Group of Seven meeting in Biarritz, France.
Fazel told the Swedish SVT television network that on August 20, “when I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues in Tehran contacted me via the Internet and said ‘four plainclothes officers came to the news agency with a warrant for your arrest’.”
Fazel said he had recently published a list of names of Iranian officials who held dual citizenship in countries the Iranian government views as “hostile states.”
“The Iranian government officially announced that it will file a complaint,” Fazel told SVT.
The day after his colleague in Iran tipped him off, Fazel managed to slip away from the delegation. “It was very difficult because of the 48 bodyguards that were there to provide security for Dr. Zarif and keep an eye on the reporters,” he said.
Fazel said he asked to step behind the group’s fan to have a smoke. Once out of sight, he said he took off, running as fast as he could. He took a taxi to a police station and applied there for asylum. He said he has since learned that his wife has been fired from her job and his child “has experienced difficulties registering for school.”
The journalist refused to comment on his personal political views.
Iran ranks 170th of the 180 countries in the 2019 Reporters Without Borders rankings of press freedoms.