A gay Iranian
teenager who was refused a safe haven in the United
Kingdom has now been granted temporary asylum by
British home secretary Jacqui Smith, following rising
concern that he would be executed if forced
to return to Iran, according to the Press
Association.
A gay Iranian
teenager who was refused a safe haven in the United
Kingdom has now been granted temporary asylum by
British home secretary Jacqui Smith, following rising
concern that he would be executed if forced
to return to Iran, according to the Press
Association.
Mehdi Kazemi, 19,
moved to London in 2005 to study English but later
discovered that his boyfriend in Iran had been arrested,
charged with sodomy, and hanged. He then filed
for asylum in England but was rejected late last
year. So he fled to the Netherlands in hopes of
gaining asylum there. Dutch officials decided, however, that
according to law, asylum can be granted only by the
original country in which the case was filed, so his
case was again rejected, and he now faces return to the
United Kingdom.
British home
secretary Jacqui Smith, however, has announced that his case
will be reconsidered after concerns that he could face
execution if returned to his homeland.
"Following
representations made on behalf of Mehdi Kazemi, and in the
light of new circumstances since the original decision was
made, I have decided that Mr. Kazemi's case should be
reconsidered on his return to the U.K. from the
Netherlands," Smith told the Press Association.
Liberal Democrat
Simon Hughes also announced that he would support the
teenager upon his return to the United Kingdom.
Iranian human
rights activists say that more than 4,000 gays and lesbians
have been executed since the ayatollahs seized power in
1979, according to the article. (The Advocate)
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