Iranians face an indefinite stay in jail

Hossein Yadegary (left) and Homeira Madani

A chef who has been in prison for nearly two years faces indefinite detention because he refuses to sign papers which would see him deported to Iran.

Hossein Yadegary, 37, has been in Auckland Central Remand Prison since November, 2004, waiting for Associate Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove to decide his appeal against expulsion.

Mr Cosgrove has finally decided not to intervene. But Mr Yadegary - and another Iranian Christian who has been in jail for 28 months - cannot be deported until they sign applications for Iranian passports.

The men refuse to do so - and face indefinite detention as a result.

Global Peace and Justice Auckland spokesman John Minto said the treatment of the Christians was "our own little Guantanamo Bay right here in the heart of Mt Eden".

The Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn, also said yesterday that he was "very opposed" to keeping Mr Yadegary in jail. He said he had been a "model citizen".

Mr Yadegary's lawyer, Isabel Chorao, is considering a legal challenge to his indefinite detention through a writ of habeus corpus, a 900-year-old provision in English law against "arbitrary or unlawful" detention.

She said the Immigration Act allowed the Government to jail Mr Yadegary because his claim for refugee status had been rejected, so he was in New Zealand illegally.

"My view is that that allows him to be held in prison so he can be put on the next aircraft - but that doesn't mean that they can hold him there for the rest of his life," she said.

National Party immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith plans to raise the case when Parliament resumes after a three-week recess today.

Mr Cosgrove declined to elaborate on his decision not to intervene.

Labour Department deputy secretary Mary Anne Thompson, who heads the Immigration Service, said Mr Yadegary had been given a fair hearing and was now legally required to leave. "The department is unable to remove him until such time as a passport is obtained. Until this time, Mr Yadegary will remain in custody."

Mr Yadegary told the Refugee Status Appeal Authority that he fled from Iran in August 1993 after getting a letter telling him to report to the authorities.

He claimed refugee status when he arrived in New Zealand two months later. The Immigration Service rejected his claim in 1996, and the appeal authority upheld that decision at three subsequent appeals, saying he was unlikely to face any real persecution if he returned.

He attended English classes at St Benedict's Church in Newton, and converted to Catholicism there in August 1997.

Father Peter Murnane of St Benedict's, who has visited him in jail for the past two years, said his conversion was "totally genuine".

Another Iranian-born Christian convert who last visited him on Friday, hospital interpreter Homeira Madani, said a Muslim who converted to another religion could be punished by death in Iranian law.

The convener of the Auckland District Law Society's immigration and refugee committee, Simon Laurent, said he expected the Government would find a way around the legal impasse.

"There is a working relationship between the Iranian Embassy and the NZ Immigration Service in terms of returns in the sense that they try to co-operate with each other to get people shifted out of the country," he said.

"He [Mr Yadegary] has been through the legal process. He has legally exercised his rights. He's failed. If he chooses to remain, then he has to choose to remain in custody."

HABEAS CORPUS

* Habeas corpus is a proceeding in English law where an individual held in custody can challenge his or her detention on the basis that it is arbitrary or unlawful.

* It dates from the reign of Henry II (1133-1189) and was codified in the English Habeas Corpus Act in 1679, which has been adopted by the New Zealand courts.