Get you up to speed: US authorities arrest grand-niece of slain Iranian commander amid crackdown
Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, and her mother, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, were arrested after their US permanent resident status was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio over ties to the Iranian regime. Both women’s green cards were revoked hours before ICE arrested them in LA on Friday.
Sarinasadat Hosseiny and Hamideh Soleimani Afshar were arrested after their US permanent resident status was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio due to alleged ties to the Iranian regime. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the arrests are part of a broader crackdown on individuals with connections to Iran, specifically citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organisation since 2019.
Sarinasadat Hosseiny and her mother, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, are currently detained following the revocation of their green cards over alleged ties to the Iranian regime. Their arrests are part of a broader crackdown on individuals with supposed connections to Iran, as stated by the Department of Homeland Security.
ICE arrest Iran warlord’s niece living her best life in Los Angeles | News US
Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, and her mother, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar were arrested on Friday
The grand-niece of the dead Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani was living a glamorous lifestyle in Los Angeles before being arrested by ICE.
Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, and her mother, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar were arrested after their US permanent resident status was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio over ties to the Iranian regime.
Hosseiny had been living in the US since 2015, when she first entered the country on a student visa, before getting permanent residency during the Biden administration in 2023.
Despite her family’s ties to the Iranian regime, Hosseiny’s social media presence showed a life at odds with it.
The arrests form part of a broader crackdown on people with alleged links to Iran
Posts showed her travelling across the US, visiting Miami, Las Vegas and Alaska, as well as laughing and smiling at music festivals.
Other images showed her aboard private aircraft and yachts and wearing clothes that would be forbidden under Iranian law, including bikinis and miniskirts.
Her mother had called America the ‘Great Satan’ in social media posts as she lived in California, as well as espousing support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terror organisation, according to the State Department.
Both women’s green cards were revoked hours before ICE arrested them in LA on Friday.
Sarinasadat Hosseiny was the grand-niece of the powerful commander
Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani pictured in 2016 (Picture: Getty)
Soleimani commanded Iran’s elite Quds Force, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and was the country’s most powerful military figure before he was killed in a US drone strike in 2020.
Trump referenced the killing again last week, describing Soleimani as ‘an evil genius’ while claiming Iran would have been in a stronger position in the war had he still been alive.
The arrests form part of a broader crackdown on people with alleged links to Iran.
She was pictured at events, including a Formula 1 race
Soleimani Afshar first entered the US on a tourist visa in 2015 and was granted asylum in 2019, before receiving a green card in 2021, but the DHS said her asylum claim was fraudulent.
The IRGC, which Hosseiny’s mother is alleged to have supported, was named as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2019.
The former commander’s daughter Narjes Soleimani has said the two women ‘have no connection whatsoever’ to her father and accused Washington of fabricating claims.
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