[Nyclocal] A life or death decision

[William Wharton]

UK Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/a-life-or-death-decision-792058.html?service=Print
A life or death decision

Mehdi Kazemi is a gay teenager from Iran. He sought
sanctuary in Britain after his boyfriend was hanged
for homosexuality. So why is Britain so determined to
send him back to Tehran – to almost certain execution?

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Thursday, 6 March 2008

A gay teenager who sought sanctuary in Britain when
his boyfriend was executed by the Iranian authorities
now faces the same fate after losing his legal battle
for asylum.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in
2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been
arrested by the Iranian police, charged with sodomy
and hanged.

In a telephone conversation with his father in Tehran,
Mr Kazemi was told that before the execution in April
2006, his boyfriend had been questioned about sexual
relations he had with other men and under
interrogation had named Mr Kazemi as his partner.

Fearing for his own life if he returned to Iran, Mr
Kazemi claimed asylum in Britain. But late in 2007 his
case was refused. Terror-stricken at the prospect of
deportation the young Iranian made a desperate attempt
to evade deportation and fled Britain for Holland
where he is now being detained amid a growing outcry
from campaigners.

He appeared before a Dutch court yesterday to plead
with the authorities not to return him to Britain
where he is almost certain to be sent back to Iran.

In a letter to the British Government, Mr Kazemi has
told the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith: "I wish to
inform the Secretary of State that I did not come to
the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and
return to my country. But in the past few months my
situation back home has changed. The Iranian
authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and
they are looking for me." He added: "I cannot stop my
attraction towards men. This is something that I will
have to live with the rest of my life. I was born with
the feeling and cannot change this fact but it is
unfortunate that I cannot express my feeling in Iran.
If I return to Iran I will be arrested and executed
like my former boyfriend."

Mr Kazemi's future will now be decided by a Dutch
appeal court, which will rule whether to grant him
permission to apply for asylum in Holland, which
offers special protection to gay Iranians, or whether
he will be deported to Britain. His case has attracted
support from leading gay rights groups across Europe
who are campaigning to allow him to live in Britain.

Omar Kuddus, from Gay Asylum UK, said that Britain
must do more to protect homosexual asylum-seekers such
as Mr Kazemi: "The challenge and legality under
question and debate in the Dutch court is if he can or
should be deported back to the UK under the Dublin
Treaty which compels EU states to send asylum-seekers
to the first European country they claim asylum."

Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights campaign group
Outrage, described the Government's policy as
"outrageous and shameful". He said: "If Mehdi is sent
back to Iran he will be at risk of execution because
of his homosexuality. This is a flagrant violation of
Britain's obligations under the refugee convention.

"It is just the latest example of the Government
putting the aims of cutting asylum numbers before the
merits of individual cases. The whole world knows that
Iran hangs young, gay men and uses a particularly
barbaric method of slow strangulation. In a bid to
fulfil its target to cut asylum numbers the Government
is prepared to send this young man to his possible
death. It is a heartless, cruel mercenary anti-refugee
policy."

Emma Ginn, of the National Coalition of
Anti-Deportation Campaigns, met Mr Kazemi at the
Tinsley House removal centre, near Gatwick airport,
while he was being detained by the Home Office. She
recalls: "Mehdi was very anxious when I visited him in
Tinsley. The Home Office planned to deport him two
days later to Iran where he risked being executed like
his boyfriend had been. I'm not surprised he fled the
UK."

According to Iranian human rights campaigners, more
than 4,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed
since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. The last
reported case of the death penalty imposed against a
gay man was that of Makwan Moloudzadeh, 21, who was
executed in December after being convicted for sodomy,
or lavat, a capital offence under Iranian law.

Last year, the Foreign Office released correspondence
sent between embassies throughout the EU dating back
to May 2005. They refer specifically to the case of
two gay youths, Mahmoud Asqari, under 18 at the time
of his execution, and Ayad Marhouni, who were hanged
in public.

The Home Office's own guidance issued to immigration
officers concedes that Iran executes homosexual men
but, unaccountably, rejects the claim that there is a
systematic repression of gay men and lesbians.

The Government has a policy of not commenting on
individual cases but a Home Office spokeswoman said:
"The UK Government is committed to providing
protection for those individuals found to be genuinely
in need, in accordance with our commitments under
international law. If an application is refused, there
is a right of appeal to an independent judge, and we
only return those who have been found by the asylum
decision-making process and the independent courts not
to need international protection.

"We examine with great care each individual case
before removal and we will not remove anyone who we
believe is at risk on their return. However, in order
to maintain the integrity of our asylum system and
prevent unfounded applications it is important that we
are able to enforce returns of those who do not need
protection." She added: "The Dublin Regulation states
that an asylum applicant should make an application
for protection in the first 'safe' country they reach
having left their own country. If they do not do so,
the Regulation permits the return of asylum applicants
to the third country where the substantive asylum
claim was made." 


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