Just another dent in the damage...

Finally there’s some good news! Remember Mehdi Kazemi? The ‘gay student who faced execution in Iran‘? Well, its been reported today that hes finally been granted asylum, ‘after protests prompted the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, to reconsider his case’! Hurray, power to the people!

Mr Kazemi came to London to study in 2005, but in April 2006 discovered his gay partner had been arrested and named him as his boyfriend before his execution. Fearing he might suffer the same fate if he returned, Mr Kazemi decided to seek asylum in Britain. His claim was refused and he fled to the Netherlands where he also failed to win asylum before returning to Britain last month.

UPDATE:

Kazemi has spoken out for the first time about his ordeal with The Independent, published today. He says:

I was devastated and I felt that I was only one step away from death. I was told that I could appeal against the decision to deport me once I was back in Iran, but I thought, how can this be possible? Who will appeal? My dead body? I knew that only a miracle could save me then.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 7:18 am and is filed under Iran, News and tagged as iranian, islamic republic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.