independent race and refugee news network


	Topics

Government policy

Policing and criminal justice system

Violence and harassment

Asylum seekers and refugees

Education

Media

Employment

Extreme-Right politics

Features

Statistics and definitions

Quiz

Schools against deportations

Reclaiming the struggle

Far-Right in Europe

Dispersed asylum seeker commits suicide in Leicester

By Liz Fekete

1 October 2001

On 18 January, the body of Shokrolah 'Ramin' Khaleghi, a 26-year- old Iranian who had been a political prisoner in Iran, was discovered in the International Hotel, a hostel for asylum seekers in Leicester.

Khaleghi took a heroin dose, one week after learning that his asylum claim had been rejected. Leicester Civil Rights Movement is campaigning alongside his friends and family for a public inquiry into his death

From torture to rejection

A conscientious objector, Khaleghi had been jailed for refusing to serve in the Iranian army and affronting fundamentalist beliefs by shaving his facial hair. He was imprisoned for six years and tortured in jail. Heroin had been forced on him as a way of stemming dissent. Despite this, he was refused asylum.

See 'A right to life - the story of Ramin Khaleghi' in Race & Class, October-December 2001

privacy | using our content | advertising | support us