Yousof Azizi: The Iranian-American scholar pressured by the FBI to return to Iran

On Monday April 13, Yousof Azizi, a PhD student at Virginia Tech University in the United States, began his day as usual by dropping his two young children at school in Baltimore, Maryland. Upon returning home, he discovered an array of FBI vehicles parked outside his residence. Once his car was exited, he was surrounded by ICE agents who took him to a Baltimore detention center.

The agents claimed he had been part of the Basij, a paramilitary group under the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, during his master's studies at Sharif University of Technology in Iran between 2007 and 2010. Azizi vehemently denied this, stating he had never been associated with the Basij. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security also accused him of having a terminated student visa due to his failure to re-enroll for the fall 2025 semester at Virginia Tech.

However, Azizi maintained he had applied for a change in status to study part-time, as part-time study would help him manage his university fees. He was questioned by the FBI about this two months before his arrest and claimed that they had even contacted his wife with similar questions. Additionally, a special agent texted him a few days before his arrest, asking to meet with him in another city to discuss matters.

Despite these claims, Azizi and his wife had never encountered issues with American authorities before. He believed his arrest was politically motivated, as some of the questions posed during his detention were considered trivial, but he felt they were trying to extract information from him.