120 rally in London against deportation of gay Iranian

”There needs to be a fundamental reform of the way the Home Office processes LGBTI asylum applications,” said protest co-organizer Peter Tatchell. ”The government refuses to explicitly rule that homophobic and transphobic persecution are legitimate grounds for granting asylum. This signals to asylum staff and judges that claims by LGBTI people are not as worthy.”

Kazemi went to London to study in 2005 and Iran later charged his boyfriend, Parham, with sodomy and executed him, according to Kazemi’s father.

Kazemi then sought asylum in Britain but was rejected. In 2006, he fled to the Netherlands, which detained him and is preparing to return him to the UK.

The UK had planned to fly Kazemi back to Iran as soon as he returned to Britain but, following media coverage and political pressure, the Home Office has agreed to review his case one more time before forcing him to go home.

”My father (said) the authorities had executed Parham and that I must not return to Iran as the authorities would do the same to me,” Kazemi said in a recent statement. ”Parham was charged with (the) crime (of) being homosexual.”

According to Kazemi’s father, Parham named Mehdi as his lover prior tohis execution.

Iran is known to have executed several teens and men accused of engagingin sodomy, although in nearly all the cases that have been publicized inrecent years the individuals were accused of other crimes as well, suchas rape.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission has said it believes additional charges are tacked onto sodomy cases to prevent the public outrage that would accompany executions carried out solely for the crime of consensual adult gay sex. The group also has said that executions solely for gay sex likely are taking place out of the public eye.

According to Britain’s Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, ”Deporting gay and lesbian people to Iran is akin to deporting Jews back to Nazi Germany.”

But Human Rights Watch asserts that it cannot fully document any executions in Iran in recent years carried out solely for the crime of consensual adult gay sex, though it does acknowledge that men have been sentenced to death for ”consensual homosexual conduct.”

”It is not known whether (the sentences) were carried out,” the group said March 28.