Iranian Refugee Ends Deportation Protest

LONDON - An Iranian refugee who had his eyes, ears and mouth stitched shut in a bid to prevent his deportation ended his protest Friday after a nine-day fast.
Supporters of Abas Amini watched as a nurse cut the stitches from his swollen lips. Doctors had warned he could suffer kidney failure if he went much longer without water.


Spokesman Sam Azad said Amini had staged the protest to highlight the plight of refugees from Iran and to urge more humane treatment of asylum seekers in Britain.


"Abas's reason is to bring a change to the attitude of the British government towards what is going on in Iran and to stop deportation to countries where no human rights have ever existed in these countries," Azad said.


A left-wing political poet, 33-year-old Amini said he faced torture if he returned to Iran, but the British government said it would challenge an initial decision to let him stay.


On Thursday, an independent tribunal upheld the decision to grant him refugee status. Amini's lawyer, Suzanne Gardner, said the government had agreed to accept the decision.


Amini had said he would continue his hunger strike until Britain changed its asylum policy to make it easier for refugees to receive asylum.


On Friday he said he had decided to end his fast so he could continue the campaign.


"Getting rid of the stitches to open my mouth is not a sign of surrender," he said through an interpreter. "I want to stay alive to continue the struggle


Iranian refugee Abbas Amini has the stitches which had kept his mouth closed, for nine days, cut by a nurse in Nottingham, England, Friday May 30, 2003. Abbas Amini had stitched up his eyes, lips and ears in protest at the threat of deportation. Spok