Iranian journalist flees to Israel

Iranian journalist and blogger Neda Amin has arrived in Israel for fear of being deported by the authorities, according to an Israeli minister and the Israeli website that she works for.

In a tweet, the Israeli Minister of Interior, Arie Deri, welcomed the 32-year-old saying: “You are welcome in Israel.”

Amin moved to Turkey from Iran and is a Farsi blogger for the Times of Israel. She had moved to Turkey after Iranian authorities began investigating her for her relations with Tel Aviv.

David Horovitz, the founding editor of the Times of Israel, met her at the airport in Tel Aviv, he thanked the authorities for allowing Amin into the country.

How Neda Amin came to Israel https://t.co/DOxz2FQaLE via @timesofisrael

— David Horovitz (@davidhorovitz) August 10, 2017

According to Israeli media sources, Turkey had planned to extradite Amin to Iran however Israel had offered to welcome her to stop her extradition. There were fears that Amin would be arrested upon arrival in Iran and “could face death sentence because of her journalism career and because of the opinion pieces she wrote for the Times of Israel”.

The blogger plans to apply for permanent residence in Israel in order to obtain the Israeli citizenship, according to Israeli media sources.