Nineteen-year-old Mehdi Kazemi said his boyfriend was executed in Iran after admitting to being in a gay relationship. So when Kazemi, an Iranian, was denied asylum in Britian where he was staying on a student visa, he fled to The Netherlands and sought refuge there. Now, The Netherlands has rejected his request for asylum, as well.

A Council of State spokesperson said that for the Dutch court to consider Kazemi's asylum application, he would have had to prove that Britian incorrectly handled his application there. Because Kazemi was not able to prove that, The Netherlands would not grant him asylum.

He is now being allowed back into Britan, for a short while:

Kazemi's lawyer will have the option of taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights to request an "interim measure" that could allow Kazemi to stay in Europe until further notice.

"If anybody signs his deportation papers and says, look, he's got to be deported to Iran, that means they have signed his death sentence," said Kazemi's uncle Saeed, who asked CNN to withhold his last name over safety concerns.

Gay rights activists in Europe and Iran are also researching Kazemi's case.
advertisement

"When Britain is prepared to send a young man back to possible execution, that is inhumanity on a monumental scale," said Peter Tatchell, an activist for gay campaign group OutRage. "And I hang my head in shame, as a British citizen."

In a written statement, Britain's Home Office said that even though homosexuality is illegal in Iran and homosexuals do experience discrimination, it does not believe that homosexuals are routinely persecuted purely on the basis of their sexuality.

[CNN: Gay Iranian teen loses asylum appeal]