According
to Amnesty International, UA 47/00 dated 23 February 2001 Iranian asylum seeker
Karim Kabiri faces deportation to Iran from Moscow, Russia where he was
arrested on 21 February. Karim Kabiri,
a 29-year-old affiliated to the Iranian Writers' Association in exile, fled
from Iran about six weeks ago after having been arrested several times,
reportedly in connection with his political activities and his part in
antigovernment student protests. According to his brother, Kabiri initially
fled to Cuba, where his application for political asylum was rejected. He then
took a flight to Moscow, and tried to get off the plane when it landed in
Ireland to apply for political asylum there. Apparently, he was not allowed to
leave the transit zone and was put back on the plane. He was arrested on
arrival in Moscow. Kabiri intended to
apply for political asylum in the Russian Federation, but he may have been
denied the opportunity to do so. It is frequently reported that asylum seekers
arriving at Moscow's international airport are forcibly returned to their
countries of origin before their asylum claims have been considered.
The
International Federation of Iranian Refugees (IFIR) calls on groups and
individuals to send letters of protest urging the Russian authorities not to
deport Karim Kabiri to Iran, where he would be in danger of imprisonment and
ill treatment and demanding that he be granted asylum.
Letters
can be sent to:
President
of the Russian Federation
Vladimir
Vladimirovich PUTIN
g. Moskva,
Kreml
Prezidentu
Rossiyskoy Federatsii
PUTINU
V.V., Russian Federation
Fax: 011 7 095 206 85 10 / 7 095 206 51 73 /
7 095 230 24 08
E-mail: president@gov.ru