Gay Iranian teen wins right to asylum in Britain
Britain said that it is granting asylum to a gay Iranian teenager who
fears that he could face execution if forced to return to his homeland.
Britain's Border Agency said it would allow asylum for Mehdi Kazemi,
who travelled in 2005 to London to study English and while there learned
that his lover in Iran had been charged with sodomy and hanged. Kazemi,
19, then sought asylum in Britain, but it was rejected, then in the
Netherlands.
The Netherlands' highest court rejected his claim in March, ruling
that Britain was responsible for the case under European Union law
because it was there that Kazemi first applied for asylum.
- AP |