MP demands justice for 'death sentence' Jojo

THE plight of a Syrian asylum seeker who fears he will be killed if he is deported from Scotland is to be raised with the Home Office.

The Scotsman yesterday revealed that Jojo Yakoub believes he has been issued with a death warrant in the form of a deportation notice from immigration officials.

Now SNP home affairs spokesman Pete Wishart has intervened in the case and is demanding a meeting with the Home Office.

Mr Yakoub fled to the UK from Syria as a teenager after suffering torture and beatings from secret police because of his homosexuality, which is illegal there, and his father's links to a Kurdish political party. He has spent the past three months in Edinburgh, after a long journey that started when he was first arrested in Syria in 2005 for handing out political leaflets.

He was held for 20 days in a cell where he claims was tortured with electric shocks and beatings.

His homosexuality was discovered after he was transferred and guards at Ahdas Prison found him with another man. The resultant beatings and torture left him in a coma for 20 days.

After being released from hospital he fled to Beirut and then made the long journey to the UK where he hoped to find refuge.

But, having lost his appeal in the Court of Session, he is certain that if he is returned to his home country he will face the death sentence. When he heard of the ruling by the judge, Lord Carloway, he said: "They're going to send me to death. They don't treat me like a human being."

Mr Wishart has previously made representations on behalf of the Mr Yakoub, and now has written to immigration minister Liam Byrne seeking a meeting on Monday.

He said yesterday: "I am appalled that the Home Office are pressing ahead with deportation given the very real risk that Mr Yakob will suffer further ill treatment or possibly even death if returned to Syria.

"We have a legal and moral responsibility to protect victims of persecution, and it is just unbelievable that the Home Office would consider sending him back."

Nick Henderson from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transexual Network (LGBT) said that the UK government had ignored the threat gay people faced in deportations for too long.

"Jojo is yet another poor victim of the government's terrible policy," he said. "We know of three other cases similar to Jojo's where deportation has gone ahead. The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has blood on her hands for the people like Jojo her department has deported."