Israel Allows Entry to Iranian Journalist Fleeing Persecution

Neda Amin could face the death penalty in Iran after writing op-eds for an Israeli news site, activists say

Israel will allow entry to an Iranian journalist fleeing persecution in her home country, Interior Minister Arye Dery said Sunday.

The journalist, Neda Amin, who writes for the Times of Israel news site, has been living in Turkey for the past three years after fleeing Iran. Amin was recently informed that she is to be deported to the Islamic Republic in the coming days.

Israeli activists say that she could be facing the death penalty in Iran for her journalistic work. The Jerusalem Association of Journalists and the Union of Journalists in Israel have asked Dery to allow Amin to enter Israel as a refugee fleeing persecution.

"Neda Amin is expected to be arrested immediately upon her arrival in Iran, and she faces danger and execution due to her work as a journalist and the fact that she has written several opinion pieces for the Times of Israel in Persian," Achiya Ginosar, an attorney with the Jerusalem Association of Journalists, said in a letter to Dery.

Dery accepted the request and will let Amin travel to Israel on a tourist visa. "This journalist faces real danger to her life only because she wrote columns for an Israeli news site," Dery said. "Under these clear humanitarian circumstances, I approved her entry without hesitation."