OUT OF SIGHT,
NOT OUT OF REACH
The Global Scale and Scope
of Transnational Repression
CASE STUDIES
Iran
People in Berlin demand the release of Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi, and Saeed Tamjidi, who took part in street demonstrations and now face
possible execution in Iran. Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images.
T
he Iranian regime’s expansive definition of who constitutes
a threat to the Islamic Republic contributes to the breadth
and intensity of its transnational repression campaign. The
authorities frequently label the targeted dissidents and
journalists as terrorists, using the term as a blanket justification
for violence and disregard for due process. The campaign
incorporates the full spectrum of transnational repression
tactics, including assassinations, renditions, detentions,
unlawful deportations, Interpol abuse, digital intimidation,
spyware, coercion by proxy, and mobility controls. These tools
have been deployed against Iranians in at least nine countries in
Europe, the Middle East, and North America.239
The Iranian campaign is distinguished by the total
commitment it receives from the state, the level of violence
that it employs, and its sophisticated application of diverse
methods against a similarly diverse set of targets. The result is
intense intimidation of the Iranian diaspora, from which even
those who avoid physical consequences ultimately suffer.
As an Iranian activist told Freedom House, “They drain you
emotionally, financially, in every way.”240
Assassinations and renditions
Since the revolution in 1979, the Iranian regime has frequently
conducted deadly attacks on exiles.241 Many opponents of the
new political system sought safety abroad, and the diaspora
continued to grow as others fled the devastating war with
Iraq in the 1980s and worsening repression over the past two
decades. The regime’s transnational repression is entangled
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