Italian
politicians said Rome could grant asylum to an Iranian
lesbian who faces deportation from the United Kingdom
and a possible death sentence back home. Meanwhile,
gay rights proponents and left-wing politicians
rallied for her cause in a protest Monday outside the
British embassy in Rome.
Pegah Emambakhsh,
40, who fled to England from Iran in 2005 after her
partner was arrested and tortured, is due to be expelled
this week after her bid for residency was rejected,
according to a British advocacy group.
Supporters in the
U.K. are lobbying immigration authorities to show
leniency. And activists in San Francisco have met with
British representatives to press Emambakhsh's claim
for asylum.
''If returned to
Iran, she faces certain imprisonment, likely severe
lashings, and possibly even stoning to death. Her crime in
Iran is her sexual orientation,'' said Peter Tatchell,
of London-based gay rights group OutRage!
The Italian gay
rights group Arcigay led about 100 people in a protest
Monday evening outside the British embassy. Some left-wing
politicians from parties in Premier Romano Prodi's
center-left coalition joined the demonstration.
Arcigay has
called on Prodi's government to offer Emambakhsh asylum.
''This life needs
to be saved,'' Aurelio Mancuso, an Arcigay leader,
yelled through a megaphone.
Government
officials, including Justice Minister Clemente Mastella,
have told reporters that Italy is ready to welcome the
woman.
Italy, like other
E.U. countries, does not have the death penalty, and it
began a push at the United Nations earlier this year for a
worldwide moratorium on capital punishment.
Homosexuality is
considered a crime in Iran and can carry the death
penalty. In 2005 the Islamic regime hanged two teenagers on
charges of involvement in homosexual acts.
The
U.K. Home Office declined to comment on Emambakhsh's
case, saying it cannot discuss individual asylum
cases.
Richard Caborn, a
former British sports minister and a lawmaker for the
northern English city of Sheffield, where Emambakhsh has
lived since 2005, said he had won a temporary delay of
her deportation and was planning to press British home
secretary Jacqui Smith over the case.
''Maybe they
wanted proof, but I don't know what proof I could have
offered,'' Italian daily La Repubblica quoted
Emambakhsh as saying in an interview published on Sunday.
''I'd rather die than go back to Iran, where something
more terrible and painful than death awaits me.''
Emambakhsh was
arrested in Sheffield last week and sent to an immigration
detention center in London before her planned deportation.
E.U. justice
commissioner Franco Frattini told the Italian news agency
ANSA on Monday that the U.K. should look at the case
''in depth.''
He acknowledged
Emambakhsh's case was difficult to prove but added that
''even if there is a doubt, a reasonable suspicion,
protection must prevail and the repatriation to Iran
must be suspended.'' (Ariel David, AP)
