MICHELE NORRIS, host:
Iran's recent crackdowns on political activists are raising fears among Iranian exiles. Some Iranians dissidents living outside the country say Iran is threatening political opponents abroad, in Europe, and even in the United States.
NPR's Ivan Watson has that story for the Turkish city of Istanbul.
IVAN WATSON: Istanbul's Ataturk Airport is a busy transit hub for passengers flying between Europe and the Middle East.
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WATSON: Because there are few visa restrictions here, Istanbul is also a popular place for family reunions for people from the neighboring Iran.
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WATSON: Last march, an exiled Iranian dissident named Amir Farshad Ebrahimi flew here from his adopted home in Berlin. He says he was coming to meet his parents whom he hasn't seen since he fled Iran some five years ago. Ebrahimi is a former member of an Iranian hard-line militia, who served several years in prison after he publicized abuses carried out by Iranian security services.
After arriving at Istanbul airport, Ebrahimi says he was detained by Turkish police.
Mr. AMIR FARSHAD EBRAHIMI (Former Militia Member): (Speaking foreign language)
WATSON: Ebrahimi says the police searched his luggage, interrogated him, and then beat him when he refused to cooperate.
Mr. EBRAHIMI: (Through Translator) I kept telling them I was only here to visit my family, but they insisted I came because I wanted to take Iranian activists to Europe.
WATSON: The Iranian says the Turks repeatedly asked him about his role in the defection of a senior Iranian military official, General Ali-Reza Asgari. Asgari went missing on a visit to Turkey last year. At the time, Iran's police chief said he may have been kidnapped by Western intelligence agencies.
Ebrahimi claims he worked with the U.S. Embassy in Ankara to facilitate Asgari's defection to the West. The U.S. State Department refuses to comment. During his detention, Ebrahimi says the Turks - accompanied by an Iranian official - threatened to send him back to Iran.
Mr. EBRAHIMI: (Through Translator) There was a man who came into the room, he was Iranian. And he said in Persian, I will take you back to Iran and see you in jail there.
WATSON: Turkish officials refused to comment on Ebrahimi's detention. And official at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara says American diplomats were aware of his arrest and closely monitored the case. That's unusual, considering Ebrahimi is a resident of Germany and has no known ties to the U.S.
Finally, after 18 hours in detention, Ebrahimi was allowed to fly back to Berlin.
Mr. EBRAHIMI: The regime might be restarting the practice of getting to dissidents outside Iran.
WATSON: Abbas Milani is the head of the Iranian Studies Department at Stanford University. Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran in 2005, Milani says the government has embarked on an internal crackdown, arresting dozens of political activists. Milani says that has raised fears among Iranian exiles as well.
Mr. ABBAS MILANI (Director, Iranian Studies Department, Stanford University): Particularly those living in Europe feel the heat because Iranian dissident life has always been cheaper in Europe than it has been in America.
WATSON: In the 80s and 90s, Iranian agents assassinated a number of opposition leaders living Europe. Roya Toloui is an Iranian activist who fled to the U.S. after she was jailed and sentenced to death in Iran for her outspoken defense of Kurdish and women's rights.
For a while, Toloui worked in Washington as a broadcaster for Radio Farda, a Persian language U.S.-government-funded radio station. Then she says the Iranian Security Services began threatening her relatives and husband who still live in Iran.
Ms. ROYA TOLOUI (Former Broadcaster, Radio Farda; Women's Rights Activist): They put pressure on my family to tell me, please stop. If not, they're going to kill me or they're going to put more pressure on my family.
WATSON: Toloui says she's afraid Tehran will go back to its old tactics.
Ms. TOLOUI: Yeah. It was a long time ago, but it can be happen again.
WATSON: Frightened for the safety of her family, Toloui finally quit Radio Farda six months ago. She now works as a technician at a lab in Virginia.
Ivan Watson, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
