Iranian gay Mehdi Kazemi made a last ditch effort to save his hide yesterday.
The 19-year old remains in The Netherlands after delaying his deportation to Britain, which will likely send him back to Iran. Kazemi moved to England in 2004 for university and claims he intended to leave, but stayed after the Iranian government executed his boyfriend.
The British government planned to kick Kazemi out, but the teen hopped off to The Netherlands, which has a moratorium on deporting endangered gays.
Kazemi’s case gets a bit complicated, however, when you consider Europe’s Dublin Treaty. That measure stipulates that asylum cases must be tried in the nation where the subject applied, which would be England for Kazemi.
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He’s hoping, however, that British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will take pity on him. In a letter sent yesterday, Kazemi again reiterates that he fears for his life and that he should be punished for his natural attractions.
The British government won’t comment on specific cases, but insists they “will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk on their return.”
Thom
Yes, the little Nazi will gladly take the lad on and show the world how he can be reformed. Is this not terrorism? Can we not prevent it?
Brian Miller
I’ve been working on this from this side of the Atlantic, and unfortunately it looks like Medhi is more-or-less at the complete mercy of the British government (and the EU’s bureaucracy).
It’s a bit rich for the EU to criticize the Bush administration’s “extraordinary renditions” of Taliban fighters to Gitmo when they, themselves, seem perfectly happy to send a gay teenager back to Iran to certain torture and execution.
Phoenix
Jesus Bloody Christ.
Bill Perdue
Here is some background informatin on Mehdi’s case which can be found at gayasylum dot yahoo dot uk.
‘A gay teenager from Iran who fled the UK for the Netherlands last year after his appeal for asylum was refused is expected to be returned to the UK today by Dutch authorities.
London Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has written to the Home Secretary to request her to urgently review the case of 19-year-old Medhi Kazemi, who faces possible execution by stoning if he returns to Iran.
Baroness Ludford, who is the Liberal Democrat European justice spokesperson and a member of the European Parliament’s Gay and Lesbian Rights Intergroup, said:
“Jacqui Smith must recognise and act on the real threat of persecution and even execution which Mr Kazemi would face if he was to be deported to Iran.
“As with Ms Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian who was granted a reassessment of her own asylum case after I and other parliamentarians intervened, we need the Home Office to accept the facts and genuinely consider the risks of deportation.
“We cannot on the one hand claim that we live in a modern and liberal society if on the other hand we are willing to send asylum seekers back to face stoning purely because of their sexuality.”
At the end of last year a court in the Netherlands ruled Medhi must be returned back to the UK.
He fled England last spring after his visa ran out and a Home Office tribunal dismissed his appeal against deportation.
It is feared that if Medhi is ordered to be deported back to Iran he may face execution for being gay.
Medhi left Iran in 2004 to travel to England on a student visa and continue his education.
While he was in the UK he learned that Iranian authorities had arrested his boyfriend Parham back in Iran, and that his boyfriend had been forced to name Medhi as someone with whom he had had a relationship.
Medhi’s father had then received a visit from the Tehran police, with an arrest warrant for his son as they wanted to put him on trial.
In late April, Medhi’s uncle told him Parham had been put to death.
The Canada-based Iranian Queer Organisation, said:
“The European governments claim to be the champions of human rights and democracy and condemn Iran frequently for its violation of human rights; and yet they willingly pave the road for the government of Iran to go ahead with its human rights abuses, and
arrest and execute an identified Iranian gay.
“Today, they sentence Medhi to torture and possible death by deporting him to Iran, and tomorrow they issue statements commending this violent and unlawful act of execution.”
Human rights group EveryOne has started a campaign to save Medhi.
“We are asking the European Union to adopt a tough stance and overrule the decision taken by Gordon Brown’s Government,” the group in a statement.
“The United Kingdom is continuing undaunted to violate the international conventions on human rights and the rights of refugees, as well as the European directives and laws which determine the requests for political asylum.
“They did it with the Iranian lesbian Pegah Emambakhsh, when they refused her refugee status, claiming she was unable to prove her homosexuality.”
EveryOne is making an official appeal to the European Union and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, to put an immediate stop to the deportation and ensure Medhi is given refugee status.
On January 31st the European Commission said:
“Member states cannot expel or refuse refugee status to homosexual persons without taking into account their sexual preferences, the information relevant to the situation in their country of origin, including the laws and ways in which they are applied.”
Medhi will have to be repatriated to his country of origin because according to the British government, he does not run any risk there.
Medhi fled in secret from England, intending to take refuge in Canada, but was blocked by the German border police.
After hearing his story, he was sent to Holland, a country known for granting refugee status to Iranian homosexuals, and again handed over to the police.
However, the United Kingdom sent a formal request to Holland asking for Medhi’s return to Britain, in order to proceed with his deportation to Iran.’
Bill Perdue
He a link to a petition to save Mehdi.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/
Bill Perdue
And here’s another.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/UKMADHI
Several young men have already been killed this year, and as many as 10,000 in the last few years.
Please take the time to sign this petition or the one above.
Tom
I saw this story on CNN tonight (3/7/2008) I have written every politician in the US and asked all my family and friends to do the same.
Ron
Where is the outrage in the world’s press. This guy is being sent to his death.
Jet
Mehdi is not completely safe yet and he needs all the support he can get!
Please visit http://www.madhikazemi.com/ and
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/UKMADHI/signatures.html as well.
Thnx in advance,
Jet, http://www.vrede.hotforum.nl