LONDON, May 20, 2008  –  Mehdi Kazemi, the 20-year-old gay Iranian, who has been trying to get asylum in the UK for two years, has been granted permission to stay in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Kazemi told UK Gay News today that he had received a letter from the Border and Immigration Agency of the Home Office to say his asylum request had now been granted.

“I am so happy,” he said, adding that he was grateful to all the help he had been given, especially by Simon Hughes MP.

There will be a full statement tomorrow.

UK Gay News first highlighted the plight of Mehdi Kazemi in April 2007 with a “plea” written by the then teenager.

He subsequently fled the country last year, ending up in the Netherlands, from where he was returned to UK at the beginning of April.  The Independent newspaper took up his cause earlier this year.

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Simon Hughes ‘Delighted’ that Mehdi, the Gay Iranian, Can Stay in UK.  Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat MP, said last night that he was “delighted” by the decision of the Home Office that Mehdi Kazemi, the 20-year-old gay Iranian could stay in the United Kingdom. (UK Gay News, May 20, 2008)

Don’t Leave Iranian Gays Abandoned.  By Mehdi.   This article was written by a 19-years-old gay Iranian who tells how, while he was a student in London, his boyfriend back home was executed for being gay.  Mehdi says he was scared of returning home and meeting the same fate when his student visa expired last year – and of his asylum application to the Home Office. (UK Gay News, April 14, 2007)