EL PAÍS moves to Dubai after expulsion of Iran reporter

EL PAÍS has this week decided to open an office in Dubai after its correspondent in Tehran, Ángeles Espinosa, was expelled from Iran. Tehran's Foreign Press Office did not explain its decision to this newspaper. Espinosa had been expelled from Iran last October after conducting an interview with the dissident son of a Grand Ayatollah, Ahmad Montazeri, who criticized the government repression after the 2009 elections.

Espinosa also attracted the interest of the Iranian authorities for her coverage of the case of Sakineh Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning.

The foreign minister at the time, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, managed to have Espinosa readmitted, but her residency permit had an expiry date, May 2, 2011. In Yemen since April, Espinosa had been trying to renew her accreditation and residency.

In July, she was given a six-day visa and traveled to Tehran under the impression that when she arrived she would be able to regularize her legal situation. In fact, when she arrived in Tehran, she found she had four days to leave the country.

"Just as I was about to leave, the director of the Foreign Press Office came to see me and the only thing he said was: 'You have been here too long," Espinosa said from Dubai.