Meanwhile, European lawmakers have launched a campaign to stop the deportation of a gay Iranian man who faces the death penalty if returned home. Nineteen-year-old Seyed Mehdi Kazemi is in a Dutch immigration jail after fleeing his deportation from England. Kazemi says his boyfriend was hanged by the Iranian government for being gay. European Parliament member Sofia Veld said he should be allowed to stay in Europe.

European Parliament member Sofia Veld: “Well, my message to the Prime Minister of the UK, Gordon Brown,would be to grant asylum to this young man, not send him back to Iran to his certain death.”