List of Iranian defectors
# List of Iranian defectors

This is a list of individuals who have defected from Iran.

| Name | Occupation | Year | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| Kimia Alizadeh | athlete | 2020 | only woman from Iran to win an Olympic medal (Taekwondo) |
| Saeid Mollaei | athlete | 2019 | Olympic judoka and 2018 world champion |
| Pourya Jalalipour | athlete | 2019 | para-archer who qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo |
| Farzad Farhangian | diplomat | 2010 | former press attache at the Iranian Embassy in Brussels |
| Mohammad Reza Heydari | diplomat | 2010 | |
| Hossein Alizadeh | diplomat | 2010 | |
| Shahram Amiri | nuclear scientist | 2009 | returned to Iran in 2010; executed by Iranian government 2016 “for revealing top secrets to the enemy” |
| Ahmad Rezaee | | 1998 | eldest son of Iranian conservative politician and senior military officer Mohsen Rezaee; found dead in 2011 at a Dubai Hotel, possible assassination |
| Abdolghassem Mesbahi | intelligence operative | 1996 | |
| Marzieh | singer | 1994 | |
| Mehdi Rezvani | athlete | 1986 | weightlifter competing at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea; won the bronze medal at the 242-pound class |
| Samad Montazeri | athlete | 1986 | weightlifter competing at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea |
| Siamak Bajand | athlete | 1986 | weightlifter competing at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea |
| Ardhir Bahmanyar | athlete | 1986 | weightlifter competing at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea |
| Ali Akbar Mohammadi | pilot | 1986 | former pilot for the speaker of Iran's Parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani; assassinated in Hamburg, Germany, in 1987 |
| iraj Fazeli | pilot | 1983 | Due to his opposition to the regime of the Islamic Republic, he first went to Van in Turkey with the Northrop F-5 (a week later the plane returned).lieutenant Iraj Fazeli went to the United States and disappeared in the United States in 1989. |
| Keyhan Jahanfakhr | pilot | 1982 | |
| Parviz Khazai | diplomat | 1982 | chargé d'affaires at Iran's Embassy in Oslo |
| Reza Abedi | athlete | 1982 | wrestler |
| Ardeshir Asgari | athlete | 1982 | wrestler |
| Askeyhan Jahanfakhr | pilot | 1982 | Iranian airline pilot; applied for political asylum in Austria after piloting his Iran Air Boeing 727 on a flight from Tehran |
| Seyyed Jabbar Mehdiyoun | athlete | 1982 | wrestler; defected during the 1982 World Wrestling Championships in Edmonton, Canada |
| Mohammad Hossein Naghdi | diplomat | 1982 | charge d'affaires at Iran's Embassy in Rome; assassinated in Rome in 1993 |
| Javad Hussain | military | 1981 | Iranian Air Force colonel |
