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An Iranian overstayer has been granted refugee status after a year-long battle in which he went on hunger strike for 53 days.
The Refugee Status Appeals Authority yesterday approved Ali Panah's third appeal after it considered the publicity generated from his hunger strike would have increased the risk
of his being persecuted if he were sent back to Iran.
Mr Panah staged his hunger strike while in the Auckland Remand Prison in 2007.
His lawyer, Grant Illingworth, QC, said the decision was hugely significant for Mr Panah, who has converted to Christianity from Islam.
Iran's Government has prepared a law which would mean a mandatory death penalty for Muslims who convert.
"A special law has been going through the Iranian Parliament ... for people to be punished for apostasy, and punishable by the death penalty."
Mr Panah claimed he would be killed if he were deported to his home country, because he had converted.
Mr Panah said: "I am very happy about the decision, it means a new life for me in New Zealand ... and I really want to thank everyone who has prayed for me and supported me."
He sought asylum when he arrived in New Zealand in 2004 but was detained for 20 months for refusing to sign documents that would have led to his deportation.
Some politicians had questioned the genuineness of his religious conversion, but his appeal has had the support of many Christian leaders, including the Anglican Archbishop David Moxon, who visited Mr Panah in prison, and believed his conversion to be "authentic and genuine".
Mr Panah's board and medical costs are being met by the Anglican Church, and Mr Illingworth would not comment on how much his legal costs were as he was not entitled to legal aid.
The Rev Clive Sperring, a retired Anglican priest, who has cared for Mr Panah since his release from prison, also said he could testify to Mr Panah's Christian faith.
"He reads the Bible and prays, not like a ritual, but from the heart, and I have no doubt at all about his belief in Christ," Mr Sperring said.
Anglican Franciscan brother Damian Wilson, of the Friary of the Divine Compassion, where Mr Panah has been staying since August, said everyone was overjoyed when the news of his success reached the friary yesterday morning.
"It was like the heavens opened, and answer to a prayer we have said so fervently every day," Brother Wilson said.
"Ali was overjoyed, but so were the rest of us."
