Amjad Amini: Our only crime is that we are the family of Jina-Mahsa Amini

On Sunday, December 9, 2023, Amjad Amini, the father of Jina-Mahsa Amini, started being banned from leaving the country by order of the Ministry of Intelligence.

The statement reads: "I asked the relevant authorities in the Tehran Prosecutor's Office what crime my family and I should be punished for and our rights as Iranian citizens should be ignored and we should be banned from leaving the country, but I did not receive any clear answer. According to the laws, isn't the authority to ban leaving the country only with the judiciary? If so, why is the order of the judicial authority not communicated to us so that we know what crime we are currently banned from leaving the country? Of course, we know that our only crime is that we are the family of Jina Mahsa Amini."

A copy of this statement, which was obtained by Kurdpa, follows:

Last night, at the official invitation of the European Parliament, my wife and I and my son, Ashkan, went to Strasbourg to attend the ceremony of receiving the Sakharov Human Rights Prize, which was awarded to my daughter Jina this year. Even though the invitation for us to travel to Europe had previously been informed to the governorate and the governorate of Kurdistan and other relevant institutions, no one announced that we were banned from leaving the country and did not have the right to travel abroad. We had a visa and wanted to go on this trip legally, but after going to the Tehran International Airport receiving the flight card, and delivering the suitcases, unfortunately, at the passport police section, we were told that we were banned from leaving the country and the passports of me and my wife and my son were confiscated and prevented us from leaving the country. At the airport, the agents who confiscated the passports expressed ignorance of the reason for the ban gave us receipts, and announced that tomorrow morning, to receive the original passports, go to the General Passport Office in Tehran. This morning, when we went to the passport office, the officials of the passport office also expressed ignorance of the incident and after some calls, they told us to go to the building of the Tehran Provincial Prosecutor's Office. I also went to the building of the Tehran Prosecutor's Office around noon today with Mr. Rezaei, who is in charge of our family's attorney. There we went to the office of the first deputy prosecutor of Tehran and the official of Mr. Deputy's office announced: "Your family has been banned from leaving the country at the request of the officer (meaning the Ministry of Intelligence)." Our insistence on meeting with the first deputy prosecutor of Tehran was unsuccessful and we were told that our family was banned from leaving the country until 20/1/2024.

Because my family and I all have the SANA system, before going to the prosecutor's office, we checked our system to see if there was any judicial case for us, but not only did we have no history of judicial cases for the three of us in the Iranian justice system, but the lady in charge who was our respondent in the Tehran prosecutor's office, in response to our lawyer's question whether a criminal case has been filed for the Amini family that the whole family has been banned from leaving the country?! She replied: "No, no judicial case has been filed against the Amini family and they have been banned from leaving the country only at the request and discretion of the Ministry of Intelligence as an officer."

I had read in the news that recently the head of the judiciary, criticizing the unnecessary bans on leaving the country, had asked the officials to immediately announce the ban on leaving the country to them. Now, in the case of our family, not only is there no strong reason for this ban, but no judicial order has been communicated to me and my family so far, and no institution or judicial authority has told us that you are banned from leaving the country and do not suffer this much travel from Saqqez to Tehran.

We came to Tehran with the assumption that if we were banned from leaving the country, they would have told us before, otherwise, we would not have traveled this far from Saqqez to Tehran.

My requests for the return of the carcass of the passports were also unsuccessful and we were told that if your ban on leaving the country is not extended after 40 days, the passports will be returned later. We just wanted to go there to receive the memorial and we even had our return ticket we had no other intention but this, but they illegally prevented this trip.

I asked the relevant authorities in the Tehran Prosecutor's Office what crime my family and I should be punished for and our rights as Iranian citizens should be ignored and we should be banned from leaving the country, but I did not receive any clear answer. According to the laws, isn't the authority to ban leaving the country only with the judiciary? If so, why is the order of the judicial authority not communicated to us so that we know what crime we are currently banned from leaving the country? Of course, we know that our only crime is that we are the family of Jina Mahsa Amini.