Former Iranian Official Detained in France for 'Links to IRGC-QF'

A former Iranian official who has been under "administrative detention" in France since June 3, was detained for links to the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, among other reasons, Iran International has learned.

Bashir Biazar, a former director Iran's state broadcast, "is connected with the Unit 840 of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) whose mission is to conduct covert and/or terrorist operations outside Iran," according to French Interior Ministry documents seen by Iran International.

The documents introduce Biazar as a "producer for Iran's state radio and television" and as someone "very close to pro-regime Iranians or official representatives of the Islamic Republic."

Biazar, who is awaiting deportation to Iran, is currently in administrative detention—a procedure utilized for urgent deportation cases under French law.

Meanwhile, a group of activists and former French-Iranian prisoners in Iran have filed a torture complaint against Biazar to stop his deportation to Iran.

The activists and former prisoners have accused Bashir Biazar, a former director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), of complicity in the torture of prisoners.

Iran's state television has on numerous occasions aired forced “confessions” of political and ordinary prisoners including dual and foreign nationals taken under physical and psychological torture.