Support Mehdi Kazemi

11.54.00am GMT Mon 17th Mar 2008

I have alreayd signed up by a friend sent me this the other day and I thought I would encourage others to sign up as well.

Mehdi Kazemi came to London to study English in 2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police, charged with having sex with other men and hanged.

Kazemi was told in a telephone conversation with his father in Tehran, that before the execution in April 2006, his boyfriend had been questioned about sexual relations he had with other men and under interrogation had named Kazemi as his partner.

Fearing for his own life if he returned to Iran, Kazemi claimed asylum in Britain. But late in 2007 his case was refused. Terror-stricken at the prospect of deportation the young Iranian made a desperate attempt to evade deportation and fled Britain for Holland where he is now being detained amid a growing outcry from campaigners. He appeared before a Dutch court to plead with the authorities not to return him to Britain where he is almost certain to be sent back to Iran.

His asylum application has been rejected by the Netherlands and he now faces deportation back to the UK where he will then most likely be returned to Iran.

If any of you happen to be in London or could get to London this Easter then you can join a protest on the 22 March at 2pm outside Downing Street and demand for Mehdi to not be sent to Iran where he will most likely be hanged for being gay.

There is a petition on the Downing Street website for the government to stop deporting gays> and lesbians to countries where they may be imprisoned, tortured or executed because of their sexuality - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stopdeportinggay/