UK-Iranian Academic Says he Escaped Iran While on Bail

UK-Iranian Academic Says he Escaped Iran While on Bail
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UK-Iranian Academic Says he Escaped Iran While on Bail

UK-Iranian Academic Says he Escaped Iran While on Bail

A British-Iranian academic said Wednesday that he had fled Iran across a mountain border after being sentenced to nine years in jail for collaborating with a hostile government.

Kameel Ahmady, a social anthropologist studying female genital mutilation and child marriage in Iran, told the BBC and The Guardian newspaper that he escaped while on bail after being sentenced, as he feared he would not see his young son again.

"I just simply left. I packed my bag with shaving kit, a few books of mine and a laptop and I think pyjamas... and warm clothes," he told BBC radio.

After being detained for suspected links with foreign intelligence services, he spent three months in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where he said he was subjected to "so-called white torture, a psychological pressure they put on you."

He was then released on bail and later sentenced in December last year and fined 600,000 euros (£529,000, $722,000) for receiving "illegitimate funds" and working on projects with "subversive institutions", Iran's Tasnim news agency reported.

British media reported that he escaped while on bail pending his appeal.

He described the journey to the BBC as "very cold, very long, very dark and very scary".

Ahmady is now living in London with his wife and son, British media reported, and his appeal was thrown out in his absence on Monday.

He told The Guardian he did not know whether Iranian authorities were aware of his escape.

He said he took the paths used by smugglers of goods from Iraq and Turkey, wading through deep snow and evading Iranian border patrols.

Ahmady told the BBC that as a dual-national and "a researcher who was digging up sensitive issues," he was aware he faced being detained.

"I always knew that I am an attractive and potential asset," AFP quoted him as saying. "But that doesn't mean that I have done anything wrong."



African Union Military Aircraft Crashes in Somalia's capital

Smoke rises in the direction of Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, July 2, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media, Abdirahman Mohamed Arab/via REUTERS
Smoke rises in the direction of Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, July 2, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media, Abdirahman Mohamed Arab/via REUTERS
TT
20

African Union Military Aircraft Crashes in Somalia's capital

Smoke rises in the direction of Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, July 2, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media, Abdirahman Mohamed Arab/via REUTERS
Smoke rises in the direction of Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, July 2, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media, Abdirahman Mohamed Arab/via REUTERS

A small military aircraft serving the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia crashed Wednesday at the airport in the capital, Mogadishu.

The aircraft crashed and caught fire while landing at Aden Adde Airport, according to the Somali National News Agency. The agency said on the social platform X that the fire “has been contained, and authorities are assessing the situation.”

According to The Associated Press, there was no immediate comment from Somali authorities. The number of casualties was unknown.

The African Union peacekeeping mission, known as AUSSOM, is helping Somali authorities to fight the extremist rebels of al-Shabab, which opposes the presence of foreign troops in the Horn of Africa nation.

The mission includes troops from countries such as Uganda and Kenya.