It also said the Tax Department had issued a ban on Ebadi leaving the country. But since Ebadi left Iran in June 2009 and is now living in London, that order amounts to little more than closing the barn door after the horse has escaped.
The question is whether the tax authorities will seize Ebadi’s home, where her husband still lives, and dispossess him, and also confiscate her husband’s bank accounts and savings, impoverishing him.
The news account said Ebadi’s debt to the Tax Department, including both the tax owed and the penalty for late payment, comes to a total of 12,613,538,647 rials.
Ebadi left Iran just days before the 2009 presidential election for a previously scheduled speaking engagement. When the post-election disorders erupted, she postponed her return. Her husband and sister were imprisoned for a period, eventually freed, but not permitted to leave.
Ebadi, who has always criticized Iranians who have fled the country, eventually set up housekeeping in London.
Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. The prize carried a money award of 10 million Swedish crowns, which was worth about $1.2 million at the time. So the Islamic Republic is effectively dunning her for her award, which she contributed to her human rights defense organization, now closed by the government.