Mehdi Kazemi is a gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian who is currently wanted in Iran for sodomy

Sodomy

Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...

. Originally in the UK to study, he was granted asylum by Britain in 2008.

Background

Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, the legal code has been based on a conservative interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law. All sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage (i.e. sodomy or adultery) are illegal and no legal distinction is made between consensual or non-consensual sexual activity. Homosexual relations that occur between consenting adults in private are a crime and carry a maximum punishment of death.

Asylum case

Kazemi had arrived in the UK on a student visa in 2004. Whilst he was attending university there, his boyfriend was arrested back in Iran, charged with sodomy, interrogated, and hanged

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 in April 2006. During interrogation, his boyfriend gave up Kazemi’s name and Iranian authorities began looking for him. Fearing for his life if he would return to Iran, Kazemi applied for asylum in the UK. However, his case was refused by the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

.

Kazemi then fled to the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 to apply for political asylum, but was refused in accordance with the 2003 Dublin Convention

Dublin Convention

The Dublin Regulation is a European Union law that determines the EU Member State responsible to examine an application for asylum seekers seeking international protection under the Geneva Convention and the EU Qualification Directive, within the European Union...

, which prevents application for asylum in more than one EU country. Kazemi was held in a detention

Immigration detention

Immigration detention is the policy of holding individuals suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorised arrival, and those subject to deportation and removal in detention until a decision is made by immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to...

 centre pending return to the UK. If returned to Iran he would have been at risk of imprisonment, torture, and execution. After a sustained campaign by several supporters, including Simon Hughes

Simon Hughes

Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British politician and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He is Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Until 2008 he was President of the Liberal Democrats...

, Michael Cashman

Michael Cashman

Michael Maurice Cashman is a British former actor, now a Labour politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands constituency since 1999.- Acting :...

 MEP, Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell

Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...

 and Middle East Workers' Solidarity, Home secretary

Home Secretary

The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...

 Jacqui Smith

Jacqui Smith

Jacqueline Jill "Jacqui" Smith is a member of the British Labour Party. She served as the Member of Parliament for Redditch from 1997 until 2010 and was the first ever female Home Secretary, thus making her the third woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State — after Margaret Thatcher and...

 agreed to review his case when he returned to the UK. He was refused asylum in the Netherlands and returned to the UK April 4, 2008.

On March 22, Middle East Workers' Solidarity and National Union of Students staged a protest opposite Downing Street

Downing Street

Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...

in defence of Kazemi. Several LGBT student organisations also attended, including the Manchester, Bradford, and Leeds University LGBT Societies. The demonstration demanded that Kazemi should not be sent to his death in Iran, and that he should be allowed to stay in Britain.

On May 20, it was confirmed that Kazemi's case for asylum had been accepted by the British government.

External links

• Iranian Queer Organisation
• Gays Without Borders
• Save Mehdi Kazemi
• IRAN: UK GRANTS ASYLUM TO VICTIM OF TEHRAN PERSECUTION OF GAYS, CITING PUBLICITY, Passed to the Telegraph by WikiLeaks, 04 Feb 2011 (original date: 5/22/2008)