Former Iranian international footballer Ali Karimi, who has emerged as one of the biggest critics of Iran's brutal crackdown on protesters, has rebuked Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he doesn't represent the country.
Karimi slammed Khamenei in a post on Instagram on January 12 just hours after the Iranian leader indirectly referred to celebrities who have supported Iranians protesting the death of a young woman while she was in police custody as "mercenaries who have fled to other countries and spread mud against Iran" and that the country's youth "will be disappointed" in them.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, several celebrities have been interrogated and have had their passports confiscated after showing support for the protests.
Actor Hossein Mohammadi, 26, faces the death sentence after he was reportedly tortured into making a confession to security forces who were looking to pin the blame on him and 15 others for the death of a member of the Basij paramilitary force during a demonstration.
Many Iranian celebrities outside the country, meanwhile, have taken a stand against the government and criticized the repression of protesters. Among them, Karimi -- who is living in an undisclosed country -- and prominent Iranian actor Hamid Farrokhnejad have expressed even stronger positions after leaving Iran.
"You have gathered a number of sycophants and corrupt people around you and think that makes you the leader of the whole of Iran?" Karimi wrote on his Instagram account -- which has 14.6 million followers -- in response to Khamenei's comments.
"If I were the target of all these opposition slogans, I would have left and not even looked behind," Karimi added using #deathtothedictator in the post.
Karimi, a former soccer player with Bayern Munich and once the captain of Iran’s national soccer team, has been a target of the government over his posts on social media, including on Instagram, where he has nearly 12 million followers.
In October, he was charged in absentia by authorities in Tehran over his support for antigovernment protesters who have taken to the streets across the country after Amini's died while being held in custody for failing to "properly wear" an Islamic head scarf, or hijab.
Karimi, widely regarded as one of the greatest Iranian players of all time, has condemned Amini’s death while lending his support to the protesters, particularly women. He has also urged security forces not to allow “innocent blood to be shed.”
The has posed one of the deepest challenges to the Islamic regime since the revolution in 1979.
Since Amini's death, more than 500 people have been killed in the police crackdown, according to rights groups. Several thousand more have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.
Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda