Tampere police suspend deportation of Christian Iranian Kurd
In Iran, men converting to Christianity could face gallows
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Iranian Kurd Ibrahim Mahmud Ali Palani, 27, who has spent almost his entire life as a refugee, could breathe a sigh of relief on Tuesday after the police in Tampere suspended the enforcement of the deportation order issued by Finland’s Directorate of Immigration.
An appeal against the Directorate of Immigration’s decision from last spring was filed with the Helsinki Administrative Court, which dismissed the appeal on September 17th. The Iranian Kurd, who had set off from Iraq to seek asylum in the West, was to be returned to the country of his birth, Iran.
The administrative court justified its decision by Palani’s lack of political activity. In the court’s view it was unlikely that the officials in Iran would have found out about Palani’s conversion to Christianity while in Finland.
Representatives of the Lutheran Church, the Pentecostal Church, and the Christian Democrats appealed for the suspension of the deportation order.
The new asylum petition refers to a motion being considered in the Iranian Parliament, in which the death penalty is suggested for those abandoning the Islamic faith.
In the first reading, the motion of introducing the death penalty for converts received 196 votes. Only seven individuals voted against it. The ratification of the law still requires another reading.
For Ibrahim Palani, the law would mean mortal danger in Iran.
As a small boy, Palani and his parents escaped the persecution of the Arab population, fleeing from Iran to Iraq.
For the Kurds life also in Iraq soon became dangerous, and Palani set off to seek asylum from Germany and England in 2001.
In England a girlfriend led the man to a Christian congregation. Palani was deported before the renegade Muslim managed to receive baptism into the Christian faith.
In April 2007 Palani arrived at a refugee centre in Tampere, from where he found his way to the Tampere Pentecostal Church later that spring.
Since the closing down of the Tampere refugee centre, Palani has resided at the Kotka refugee centre.
Life seemed to stop and anguish, nightmares, and fears of death started to torment him when he heard of the deportation order, said Palani through an interpreter.
Palani justified his decision to change religions by saying that within Islam so many wrongdoings take place.
“I have familiarised myself with Christianity and I feel it is the right way for me.”
Palani is hoping for a new beginning for his life.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 29.10.2008 - TODAY |
 Tampere police suspend deportation of Christian Iranian Kurd |
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