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‘DON’T SEND HIM BACK’

Campaign to stop sixth-form pupil’s deportation to Iran

TEACHERS and pupils have mounted a campaign this week to stop the deportation of one of their sixth-form students and friend.
Behnam, 19, who studies at Quintin Kynaston in St John’s Wood, is facing five years in prison and 70 lashes if he is made to return to his home country of Iran by the Home Office. Behnam and his family moved to London legitimately in 2002 when his father started working at a British shipping company. But in August Behnam and his mother Masoumeh (who have asked for their surnames not to be printed) were sentenced in absentia by an Iranian Revolutionary Court to five and seven year jail sentences and lashes if they return.
They were found guilty of collaborating with the Mujahadin, an outlawed opposition organisation, after the Iranian authorities found anti-government leaflets were being printed in their Tehran flat while the family were living in England.
“My friends were staying in our Tehran flat while they finished their studies,” Behnam said.
“I knew they were Mujahadin but I did not know they were using the flat to make leaflets and when police raided them they found their photocopier.”
The men were arrested and questioned by the authorities in April. Behnam and his mother’s situation worsened when their application for asylum was rejected in September after Benham’s father was arrested at Tehran airport on his return to start a new job. His wife and sons chose to stay in England while Behnam finished his A-levels at Quintin Kynaston and his father has not been heard from since. Two of Behnam’s teachers Pauline Levis and David Davies have been working around the clock since September when Behnam lost his appeal for asylum.
Ms Levis said: “I am dismayed and outraged by the suffering this delightful family are going through at the hands, not only, of the Iranian authorities, but also the British Home Office whose motto is ‘building a safe, just and tolerant society’.”
The family claimed asylum but despite evidence that included authenticated documents from the Iranian court their claim was rejected. It again failed on appeal. A further appeal has been lodged but it is not yet known if this will even be heard.
Mr Davies has written to the family’s Hampstead and Highgate MP Glenda Jackson asking for support. While forced deportation should not take place until an asylum case has been through the High Court, Ms Levis, a refugee and asylum seeker co-ordinator at the school, said the family remain concerned: “Dawn raids have been known to happen while the appeal process is still on going. Next Friday they must sign in to an immigration officer in Old Street and people have been known to be picked out from the queue and sent away so the family are understandably scared.”
A spokesman for Karen Buck, MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North, said she would not intervene until the appeal process has been exhausted. A demonstration is being organised by Behnam’s friends and teachers at Quintin Kynaston and is expected to take place next week.
The Home Office have told the family’s lawyer that their case will be heard at an immigration appeals tribunal within two weeks. A spokesman for the Home Office said they refused to comment on individual cases.



Angelino's finest are put to the test


WE came across Angelino Wines, sandwiched between two colourful and aggressively self-promoting Australian wine sellers, at Islington’s London Wine Event at the end of October.
Its owner is Farrell Anglin, whose imagination was caught by a lecture on the history of wine making at Southgate College.

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