Iranian regime-linked handler investigated by Australian police over alleged death threat

Protesters outside the Royal Pines resort on the Gold Coast, Australia, as a bus carrying players from the Iranian women's football team and staff departs. Photograph: Russell Freeman/Reuters

Australian police investigated a complaint involving an Iranian regime-linked handler for the country’s football team after a group of activists alleged he threatened to kill them at a Women’s Asian Cup match last week.

The criminal investigation, confirmed by Queensland police, has led to renewed calls from the Iranian diaspora for tougher immigration screening processes to block people linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – a proscribed state sponsor of terrorism – from entering the country.