Victory: Iranian Man, Who Faces Death In His Homeland, Stays In Belarus

Human rights activists and the public were standing up for Mehrdad Jamshidiyan.

For humanitarian reasons, the Ministry of Internal Affairs allowed the Iranian citizen Mehrdad Jamshidiyan to stay in Belarus and be granted a corresponding status. This was stated by head of the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Aliaksei Biahun on June 17, Radio Svaboda reports.

Mehrdad spent 11 months in the isolation ward, waiting for his fate to be decided. He has been living in Belarus for more than 20 years, has a family here and adopted Christianity. His wife and three children are Belarusian citizens.

The Iranian authorities have been demanding his deportation since 2012, allegedly on charges of the murder of his mother and brother. However, human rights activists stated that this was only an excuse to return Mehrdad to his homeland, where he would face the death penalty for adopting Christianity. It is also known that his brother was an opposition activist and the persecution may be due to political reasons.

March 15, 2019, Maskouski police department of Minsk decided to deport Mehrdad to Iran, but this decision was cancelled by the court, which sent the case for a new hearing.

It is worth mentioning that Belarusian human rights activists and civil society were for the cancellation of the deportation decision. A petition was created to discuss the problem of Mehrdad Jamshidiyan.