KEY POINTS:
Amnesty International has condemned the Corrections Department for holding an Iranian Christian asylum-seeker in handcuffs in Auckland Hospital, where he is on the 35th day of a hunger strike.
Ali Reza Panah, 40, was transferred to the hospital from prison on July 30 because he refused to eat
in protest at being held for 18 months pending deportation to Iran.
A supporter, Homeira Fatthi, said he was lying on his bed handcuffed to a Corrections Department guard sitting next to him when she and lawyer Peter Moses visited him in hospital on Tuesday.
"He was quite weak. He had lost quite a bit of weight," she said.
"He was lying down on the bed. He couldn't sit up. He tried to hold his neck up off the pillow, but got tired very quickly and put his head back again."
She said Mr Moses asked the two guards in the room to remove the handcuffs. One guard sought advice and took the handcuffs off, saying they were only supposed to be on when Mr Panah was alone with only one guard in the room.
But Mrs Fatthi said: "When we finished the meeting they put the handcuffs back again. I was still there when they did that. At that time he was well settled in his bed but the handcuffs were put back on again."
Auckland Central Remand Prison manager Mack Herewini said handcuffs were used only while Mr Panah was being taken from Auckland Hospital to Greenlane clinical centre and back on Tuesday.
"Mr Panah had just returned from Greenlane when met by his visitors and the handcuffs had not yet been removed," he said.
"The handcuffs were removed once he was settled in his room."
Amnesty International's refugee co-ordinator in Auckland, Margaret Taylor, welcomed Mr Herewini's acceptance that it was not appropriate to handcuff Mr Panah on his hospital bed.
"It's an extreme and unnecessary measure," she said.
"It doesn't seem overly humane, particularly with two guards when he's in a weakened state from a hunger strike."
She said Amnesty International considered it was unsafe for proven Christian converts to return to Iran, where conversion from Islam is a capital offence - although no one has been executed for the offence in 10 years.
"Human rights conditions in Iran have been described as dire and they are deteriorating," she said.
The Government has been unable to deport Mr Panah because Iran will not accept its citizens being repatriated from other countries unless they sign an application for a passport or travel documents.
Mr Panah will not sign because he says he would probably be detained, and possibly killed, if he returned.
Ms Taylor urged the Government to provide work permits for Iranian Christian converts "until such time as it is safe for them to return home".
The Refugee Status Appeals Authority did not believe Mr Panah's conversion to Christianity was genuine.
But Orakei Anglican vicar Clive Sperring, who has been visiting Mr Panah in jail for 18 months, said yesterday he had no doubt about the Iranian's Christian faith.
"He worshipped here regularly, read his Bible and talked about his faith to people. He led a young lady to faith," he said.
"While he has been in prison, he has carried on his faith. He went to services in prison and talked to people about it and really believed that God was going to get him out of prison."
Another Iranian Christian asylum-seeker, Amir Mohebbi, 34, remains in the remand prison 3 1/2 years after being detained pending deportation.
Global Peace and Justice Auckland spokesman John Minto said Mr Mohebbi, a father of three, was "the longest-serving remand prisoner in the history of New Zealand".
Another Iranian Christian, Thomas Yadegary, was released on bail in April after 2 1/2 years in jail.
Labour Department Deputy Secretary Mary Anne Thompson said the department had been talking to Iranian officials since late last year in an effort to find a way to return rejected asylum-seekers to Iran.
"Good progress has been made," she said.
Mr Moses could not comment because he was instructed by the North Shore District Court as "amicus curiae" (friend of the court).
Mr Panah has been unable to afford his own lawyer since exhausting all available appeals.
Christians in Iran
* Conversion from Islam (apostasy) is punishable by death under Islamic law.
* Amnesty International does not know of any execution for apostasy in at least the past 10 years.
* But 84 members of the Iranian Assemblies of God were arrested at their annual conference in 2004. All were later released except for one who was jailed for three years on charges of deceiving the armed forces about his religion and "acts against national security". He was acquitted on charges of apostasy.
* Christian convert Mehdi Dibaj was murdered in 1994 soon after serving nine years in jail for apostasy.
* Dibaj's daughter and son-in-law were detained for nine days last September.
* Five Protestant pastors were murdered in the 11 years up to last year.
Source: Amnesty International
