Hamid Ismailion After His Mother's Travel Ban: No Threat or Action Will Prevent Me from Continuing My Path

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps agents stopped Hamid Ismailion's mother while she was traveling to Canada to attend the fourth anniversary of the downing of flight PS752. On Sunday, December 5, Ismailion, the former secretary of the Association of Families of Victims of Flight PS752, announced on his Instagram account that his mother was stopped at the Tehran airport gate after checking in her luggage and receiving her boarding pass. He stated that his mother's 'insistences' to know the reasons for this action were in vain, adding: 'There, they confiscated her passport and said she was banned from leaving the country and that to pursue the travel ban, she must go to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.' Ismailion also mentioned that on Sunday morning, after 'visiting various places including the passport office,' responsible officials told his mother, 'You and your husband are banned from leaving for six months due to documents in the possession of the Ministry of Intelligence.' According to Ismailion, a 'phone conversation between two agents,' including a woman named 'Razavi,' was overheard, stating, 'The parents of so-and-so are here, but do not mention the main reason.' He referred to 'Ghazizadeh Hashemi,' the former Minister of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic, who had said after a three-year travel ban to Canada, 'They will retaliate after returning to Iran.' He added: 'I tell the honorable Minister of Immigration and the honorable Minister of Public Security of Canada that if the cost of expelling all agents of the Islamic Republic is the arbitrary punishment of the families of Iranian activists, I am willing to pay such a cost. Expel them and restore security to this country.' Hamid Ismailion also emphasized that 'my parents are not responsible for my activities,' stating that 'no threat or action will prevent me from continuing my path.' He addressed the Islamic Republic, saying: 'You may want to deprive me and my parents of seeing each other or prevent my 73-year-old mother from visiting the graves of her daughter-in-law and her 9-year-old granddaughter, who were murdered by you, and attending their memorial ceremony. However, I have no doubt that instead of my mother, dozens of others in Toronto will do so, and my mother will commemorate this day in Iran among the large family of the victims' survivors and the people of Iran.' He, whose wife Parisa Eghbalian and daughter Rira Ismailion were among the 176 victims of the IRGC missile strike on the Ukrainian passenger plane, also emphasized: 'We leave you with the regret of hearing a single sigh, and we await the day of your trial. We neither forget nor forgive.' The birthday celebration of Arad Zarei, one of the victims of the IRGC's missile strike on the Ukrainian plane, was held at his gravesite. The fourth anniversary of the suppression of the November 2019 protests; families seeking justice gathered in Toronto. Statements from Amnesty International and the Association of Families of Victims of the Ukrainian flight were issued on the occasion of November 2019.