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Priti Patel has been accused of attempting to deport a former senior Iranian police officer who fled to the UK after giving first-hand testimony of potential human rights violations by the Iranian authorities.
Counsel for the Iran Atrocities Tribunal –also referred to as the Aban Tribunal – in London has written to the house secretary saying {that a} named former officer within the Iranian police has been detained within the UK and been informed he can be despatched 4,000 miles to Rwanda subsequent week.
In a letter seen by the Guardian the counsel claims the previous officer fled to the UK in Might after being sentenced to 5 years in an Iranian jail for refusing orders in 2019 to fireplace indiscriminately upon crowds of protesters.
Patel introduced final week that the primary deportation flight to Rwanda would go away on 14 June. Attorneys imagine the flight could also be delayed due to authorized challenges in opposition to the controversial transfer.
Hamid Sabi, counsel to the Iran Atrocities Tribunal, wrote that the previous police officer arrived within the UK by a small boat on 14 Might 2022 and is presently detained in Brook Home detention centre. On 31 Might, he was served with discover that he can be despatched to Rwanda, the letter claims.
“[The former police officer] is a conscientious and courageous citizen of the world, and he has a real and well-founded concern of persecution in Iran.
“Iranian brokers have been searching for his whereabouts whereas he was in Turkey by harassing his relations. Rwanda, having a detailed relation to the Islamic Republic of Iran isn’t a protected haven for [him]. Please rethink your choice for his elimination,” Sabi wrote in his letter to Patel.
The previous officer informed the tribunal that he was in command of dozens of officers in a provincial metropolis when he was ordered by the authorities to shoot at peaceable demonstrators.
In keeping with the letter, he was tried earlier than a disciplinary court docket in Iran for disobeying the order to shoot and was sentenced to 5 years.
He fled from Iran to Turkey within the autumn of 2021 and testified by video hyperlink earlier than the tribunal in November, the letter claims.
On 15 November 2019, the Iranian authorities introduced that gasoline costs had tripled, main peculiar residents to protest within the streets. The nationwide protests have been peaceable and solely consisted of individuals blocking roads with their vehicles and shouting slogans.
Over the week that adopted, protests in most cities, cities and provinces have been repressed by police and navy forces who attacked protesters and bystanders with firearms. Tons of have been killed, hundreds extra injured, arrested or tortured.
The Iran Atrocities Tribunal was arrange by three NGOs to look at proof of human rights violations in Iran throughout late 2019.
The Residence Workplace has additionally been accused of making an attempt to deport unaccompanied 16-year-olds to Rwanda within the first wave of asylum seekers.
One particular person who stated they have been underneath 18 was positioned in detention awaiting potential deportation to Rwanda and solely launched on the finish of Might, following intervention from attorneys.
One other two asylum seekers recognized by one charity as having acquired warnings of imminent elimination and presently held in immigration detention centres say they’re 16, however their age is contested by the Residence Workplace.
These presently detained for offshoring embody Syrians, Sudanese, Afghans, Eritreans, Iranians and Iraqis, a few of whose dwelling nations are lively battle zones.
A bunch of asylum seekers going through offshoring launched into a starvation strike final week and on Friday dozens in Brook Home detention centre close to Gatwick airport began a protest within the train yard.
A Residence Workplace spokesperson stated folks shouldn’t make harmful and unlawful journeys to the UK, including: “We stay totally dedicated to working with Rwanda to supply security to these searching for asylum.”
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