URGENT: Letter-Writing Action: Stop Sweden’s Illegal Deportation of Peyman Najafi!

PLEASE SEND THIS SAMPLE LETTER (adjust to your own taste) TO STOP THE ILLEGAL DEPORTATION OF IRANIAN ACTIVIST PEYMAN NAJAFI.

Peyman’s illegal deportation by the government of Sweden is scheduled for 12 August 2011. The Swedish government has already bought his tickets and is determined to send him to detention, torture, and possible execution. It is up to us to do all in our power to stop this crime. Peyman is counting on us.

SAMPLE LETTER:

To Tobias Billström, Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy, Sweden, regarding Peyman Najafi (case no. 1346710):

I am writing to you to demand an immediate halt to the deportation of Iranian Peyman Najafi, an Iranian asylum-seeker who has sought refuge in Sweden from persecution by the Islamic Republic of Iran (case no. 1346710).

Peyman has a well-documented history of activism against the Islamic Republic. He is an activist with the Yarsan Democratic Movement, and has written published literature against the regime in his role as a member of that organization. He also maintains a blog where he publishes his literature against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Anti-regime activists are usually charged with propagating against the regime and moharebeh, which carries the death sentence in Iran.

The Islamic Republic considers all Iranian political asylum-seekers to be criminals, deeming their quest for asylum as propagating against the regime. The Islamic Republic has on several occasions declared and applied its intent to prosecute returned political asylum-seekers, on the basis of Article 7 of the Islamic Republic’s Penal Code. Rahim Rostami, a teenaged Kurdish asylum-seeker returned to Iran by Norway and immediately imprisoned is one such example. Peyman has sought political asylum and therefore, under the Islamic Republic, is subject to prosecution by the regime.

It is illegal under international law for any country including Sweden to deport a person who has a legitimate fear of persecution in their home country.  It is therefore undeniably illegal under international law for the Swedish government to participate in the crime of deporting Peyman Najafi to Iran, where he will be detained, tortured, and possibly executed if he is returned to the blood-soaked hands of the Islamic Republic.

The Swedish government has repeatedly violated the rights of asylum-seekers.  On September 3, 2010, in the case of R. c. v. Sweden (application no. 41827/07), the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found that deporting an Iranian dissident to Iran would be a violation by the Swedish authorities of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Yet despite this finding, the Swedish government continues to illegally attempt to deport Iranian activists like Navid Mirpourzadih, Sanan Ashrafi, Marzieh Kamangar, Mehdi Maleki, Keivan Soufastaei, and others, all of whom are clearly and undeniably at risk not only of detention and torture by the Islamic Republic of Iran, but at unquestionable risk of execution.

We demand an urgent, immediate halt to Sweden’s intended illegal refoulement of Peyman Najafi, who is at clear risk of execution if returned to the Islamic Republic. Given the the Migration Office’s blatant, repeated violations of international law regarding refugee rights, risking the lives of Iranian and other asylum-seekers, we demand that Sweden must not only immediately halt the illegal deportation of Peyman Najafi, but must immediately cease all deportations to Iran.

Sincerely,

[your name]

Send to:
Tobias Billström, Swedish Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy and
Press Secretary Linda Norberg

key emails:
migrationsverket@migrationsverket.se, registrator@foreign.ministry.se, guterres@unhcr.org, swest@unhcr.org, hq@iom.int, maja.kocijancic@ec.europa.eu

and

jerzy.buzek@europarl.europa.eu, michael.spindelegger@bmeia.gv.at, kab.bz@diplobel.fed.be, info@mvp.gov.ba, iprd@mfa.government.bg, imprensa@itamaraty.gov.br, imprensa@planalto.gov.br, pm@pm.gc.ca, ministar@mvpei.hr, minforeign1@mfa.gov.cy, podatelna@mzv.cz, udenrigsministeren@um.dk, vminfo@vm.ee, umi@formin.fi, bernard.kouchner@diplomatie.gouv.fr, inform@mfa.gov.ge, guido.westerwelle@auswaertiges-amt.de, gpapandreou@parliament.gr, titkarsag.konz@kum.hu, external@utn.stjr.is, dcpf@mea.gov.in, minister@dfa.ie, gabinetto@cert.esteri.it, segreteria.frattini@esteri.it, mfa.cha@mfa.gov.lv, tonio.borg@gov.mt, secdep@mfa.md, post@mfa.no, DNZPC.Sekretariat@msz.gov.pl, pm@pm.gov.pt, msp@mfa.rs, ministry@mid.ru, miguel.moratinos@maec.es, beatriz.lorenzo@maec.es, registrator@foreign.ministry.se, info@eda.admin.ch, info@mfa.gov.tr, haguew@parliament.uk, stewartkb@state.gov