Executed For Homosexuality
It just ain’t funny.
Apologies for those of you who are used to my lighter tone, but as Paul Canning’s blogging again, I get to find out some of the unpleasant aspects of our world that I otherwise wouldn’t come across.
Athough gays suffer murderous persecution ( a ‘deathzone’) in Iraq and many other nations, these are the ones with the death penalty in the statutes: Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen and Nigeria.Paul Canning
It turns out that in our “civilised” country, we’re prepared to deport people, knowing that when they get back to their country of origin, they’re going to face the death penalty for homosexuality. In fact, we’re not only prepared to deport them; we’re prepared to ask for them back — once they’ve reached another “safe” country — so that we can then deport them to face the death penalty.
Medhi is an Iranian homosexual who in November 2005 left Teheran to go and study in London. He was forced to apply for asylum to the British Home Office after the discovery, by the Iranian authorities of his homosexual relationship with another boy, who had already been sentenced to death and executed in April 2006….
The Iranian Police had already turned up at Medhi’s father’s home in Teheran with an arrest warrant for his son, with the intention of sending him to trial…
A few months ago his application for asylum was turned down by the British Home Office: Medhi will have to be repatriated to his country of origin because according to the British Government, he does not run any risk there.
Medhi therefore fled in secret from England, intending to take refuge in Canada, but he was blocked by the German border police. After hearing his story, he was sent to Holland (a country known for granting refugee status to Iranian homosexuals) and again handed over to the police. However, the United Kingdom has now sent a formal request to Holland asking for Medhi’s return to Britain - according to the Treaty of Dublin, and according to regulation CE 343/2003, in order to proceed with his deportation to Iran.
Paul describes those in the Home Office who are enacting this policy of sending people back to countries where they face execution for homosexuality as being complicit in murder, and compares it to those people who sent Jewish children fleeing Nazi Germany back to face their deaths. I don’t know how to explain my own thoughts other than to say I feel revulsion and a deep and personal shame that my country is involved.
I don’t want to tell you what to think, though. Read the Everyone Group story for yourself; read what Paul has to say. If you feel strongly about it, Paul also provides contact details for you to make your feelings known to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.
Hello. I am 
cheers Jack, the more know what’s happening the better and maybe Smith and her cronies might actually do something.
I don’t expect this to be the lead in the Daily Mail anyday soon and the anti-immigrant mob (right word) is the real reason Smith and those before her couldn’t be bovvered.
Shame is definitely the right emotion although - obviously - Brits, including British gays, haven’t yelled hard enough because they keep doing it. I don’t think I’m being too strong in saying she’s ‘complicit in murder’. This stuff really hits me personally because I can put myself in the shoes of the poor sods she’s sending back (in our name).
re: ‘as Paul Canning’s blogging again, I get to find out some of the unpleasant aspects of our world’ - I do have cute monkey pix too! ;]
I agree Jack, but when is one country better than another, the problem is who are we to really say that we are right and you are wrong. As abhorant at the result may be if you break the law in country x - you face justice in country x. For instance certain rights to protect my property are stonger in the US than they are the UK, so someone breaks into my house I shoot them dead and flee to Texas should I face extradition to the UK because I commited muder in the UK, even though my actions are defensible under law where I now reside.
I do not think homosexuality is a crime, however other countries do, and therefore what right do we have to stop other countries from persuing their own justice.
I understand what you’re saying - I disagree, but I understand. I guess it boils down to how far you’re prepared to go as regards extradition treaties, doesn’t it?
In your hypothetical home-defense case, I’d argue you should face extradition. In Medhi’s case, I’d argue not.
Is that double-standards? Again, I think not. I think Wikipedia’s article on extradition sums up how I believe quite nicely:
In this case, I think you’ve got both the death penalty, and the inhuman/degrading treatment clauses which suggest he should not be extradited (at least in my opinion). Fortunately, the Dutch seem to agree, as they don’t seem prepared to hand him over to us, judging that we’ll hand him over to Iran…
As you picked up on, Jack, people need to remember we’ve been here before - the 1930s when jews were sent back to Germany. And that’s not a hysterical analogy.
I’m updating news about Mehdi here http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/2008/02/update-iranian-gay-deportee-mehdi.html