"Don't Believe Iranian Propaganda On Gays," Urges GALHA

LONDON, 24 MARCH 2008 — More than 100 protesters gathered in Whitehall near Downing Street on Saturday calling on the Government to halt the deportation of gay Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi, and calling for a review of the UK’s asylum system, which fails to recognise sexuality as a specific ground for refugee status.

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has demanded that the Government clarify its approach to the deportation of gay people to Iran after a spokesperson in the House of Lords claimed there was no evidence that gays were being executed because of their sexuality.

During a debate on asylum seekers, Lord West of Spithead, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, said: “We are not aware of any individual who has been executed in Iran recently solely on the grounds of homosexuality, and we do not consider that there is systematic persecution of gay men in Iran.” (Lords Hansard, 18 March 2008, column 142)

Despite being challenged by fellow peers, the minister continued to insist that there is no evidence of “any individual having been executed solely on the grounds of homosexuality”.

Lord Avebury drew the Government’s attention to the case of Makwan Mouloudzadeh, a teenager who was executed for a homosexual offence allegedly committed when he was 13 (Lords Hansard, 18 March 2008, column 143). Lord West responded by saying that in the case of the two teenagers whose execution was shown on television “they were hanged because they were found guilty of raping a 13-year-old boy. They were hanged for the offence of rape.”

Jim Herrick, a spokesperson for GALHA, said: “It is quite extraordinary that the Minister can claim that there is no evidence of gays being executed in Iran. He seems more inclined to believe the propaganda of the Iranian authorities than the independent reports of organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch which testify to the risk of execution faced by gay Iranians. GALHA is writing to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, asking for clarification of the Government’s stance on this issue.”